PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) – Prosecutors in Virginia won a rare conviction of a white former police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teen suspected of shoplifting.
But the guilty verdict Thursday was for voluntary manslaughter, a lesser charge than the original first-degree murder count. And the jury recommended a 2 ½ year prison sentence for Stephen Rankin, a punishment far below the decade prosecutors had sought.
The outcome is typical of the rare conviction that follows a shooting by police, said Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Juries are very reluctant to convict on-duty officers of murder “because they all recognize that policing is difficult and violent,” Stinson said.
In a similar case in Baltimore on Thursday, a jury convicted a police officer of assault for shooting an unarmed burglary suspect. He was originally charged with attempted murder.