CINCINNATI (AP) – With the nation focused on the closing days of the long, heated race for the presidency, two trials related to the country’s continued racial divisions have just begun.
Juries in Cincinnati and Charleston, South Carolina, will decide the fates of white former police officers charged with murder in the shootings of black men. The cases are among a series of deaths of blacks in police encounters over the last two years that have raised attention to how police deal with blacks.
In the cases that will be decided in the weeks ahead, both shootings followed traffic stops. Both black men were unarmed, but both former officers have said they felt seriously threatened.
Both trials are expected to be still going on after election day.