Fullerton, Calif., police officer Manuel Ramos, right, and Cpl. Jay Cicinelli are arraigned on charges in the death of a homeless man, Kelly Thomas, in Superior Court in Santa Ana, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011. Ramos was charged with one count each of second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Thomas after a violent confrontation in Fullerton on July 5. Cicinelli was charged with one count each of involuntary manslaughter and excessive force. (AP Photo/Paul Rodriguez, Pool)LOS ANGELES – A suspect pulls on a pair of rubber gloves, tells a mentally ill homeless man he’s about to attack him, then initiates a beating that ends in the man’s death.
Any prosecutor might ordinarily be confident of a slam-dunk murder conviction, especially when the beating is captured on video and audio recordings.
But when the suspect is a police officer, all bets are off.
Authorities charged a Fullerton police officer with murder Wednesday amid those circumstances, but legal observers said murder convictions for on-duty police killings are exceedingly rare, primarily because courts and jurors have an innate sympathy for law enforcement officers, even when video or audio evidence depicts a killing in graphic detail.
“Jurors are reluctant to find murder when it is not a cold-blooded, premeditated killing,” said Dane Ciolino, a law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans. “Unless they think the officer woke up, put on his boots with murder on his mind, it’s difficult for prosecutors to prove a case.”