Johannes Mehserle, was pronounced guilty for involuntary slaughter, and given a jail term of maximum 4 years for the killing of an unarmed black American named Oscar Grant. After hearing the verdict, many members of the black community in Oklahoma began rioting on the streets as they expected that he would have received a tougher jail term for this crime.
Johannes Mehserle (L) and Oscar Grant (R)
Mehserle was convicted by second degree man-slaughter, and the court had stated they have not found him guilty of man-slaughter. Merserle had killed a 22 year black American named Oscar Grant, on the Oklahoma train platform, by shooting him on the 1st of January 2009. The case had to be moved from the Alameda county to Los Angeles, because there was too much publicity in the city about the trail.
According to the jury, who had no African-American members in it, stated that they were not able to place Mehserle under any criminal charges . Mehserle worked for the Bay Area Rapid Transport Police. The murder was recorded by a bystander on his cellphone, which he later published it on the internet, creating ripples of questions to rise through the media and spurred many protests and riots around the city.
