What happened in 15 recent cases where blacks
were killed by the police or died in police custody:
We looked at 15 high-profile cases from the last three years that rose to national prominence and increased racial tensions, often prompting protests around the country.
In some of the cases, the police offered an explanation for their actions, but raw videos led many to conclude that their actions were unjustified.
Officers were indicted or charged in eight of the cases. Trials are pending in four cases. Just two cases have resulted in guilty pleas or convictions so far.
Cases where an officer was indicted or charged:
3 acquitted, charges against 3 others dropped
Officer pleaded guilty to civil rights charges
Officer convicted of manslaughter, judge later reduced to negligent homicide
In May, Officer Betty Jo Shelby was found not guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black driver in Tulsa, Okla.
After a mistrial for murder or voluntary manslaughter charges in December, Michael T. Slager, the North Charleston, S.C., officer who fatally shot Walter L. Scott in the back as Mr. Scott was running away, pleaded guilty to civil rights charges earlier in May.
Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter after Akai Gurley was killed by a ricocheting bullet in a dark stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project. The judge later reduced the conviction to criminally negligent homicide.
In seven cases, no officers were charged, and may never be. For example, in the case of Keith L. Scott, 43, who was shot during a confrontation with the police in the parking lot of his apartment complex in Charlotte, N.C., the prosecutor decided not to charge Officer Brentley Vinson, saying that the officer’s use of deadly force was justified.
In another case, Timothy Loehmann, the officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice in Cleveland, was never criminally charged in the death of the 12-year-old boy. But two and a half years after the shooting, Mr. Loehmann was fired for providing false information when he had applied for the job.
Cases where officers have not been charged:
“Most police shootings are found to be legally justified,” said Philip M. Stinson, an associate professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University and a former police officer who tracks police crime.
“Under the relevant Supreme Court case law,” Mr. Stinson said, “if an officer has a reasonable apprehension of an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or deadly force being imposed against the officer or somebody else, then they’re justified in using deadly force.”
While criminal convictions are uncommon, many families of victims have agreed to settlements of $1.9 million to $6.5 million.