CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Georgia Ferrell says she’s still seeking justice after a jury couldn’t unanimously decide the fate of a white North Carolina police officer accused in the 2013 shooting death of her son, an unarmed black motorist.
“I’ve got to keep fighting,” Ferrell said outside a courthouse late Friday afternoon after she heard a judge declare a mistrial in the voluntary manslaughter case of Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Randall Kerrick. “We must get justice.”
A racially diverse jury of eight women and four men deliberated over four days. All told, it took four votes on the charge of voluntary manslaughter against Kerrick in the death of Jonathan Ferrell, a former Florida A&M football player.
Judge Robert C. Ervin, the grandson of former North Carolina Sen. Sam Ervin, twice asked the jury if continuing their talks would help overcome the impasse.
“Honestly, we have exhausted every possibility,” the foreman said after Ervin asked a second time Friday. Hours earlier, the foreman had said the jury was making progress in resolving the 8-4 deadlock.