A Colorado jury found a police officer guilty of criminally negligent homicide and assault but acquitted another officer in the case of an unarmed Black man, Elijah McClain, on Thursday, but it is not the end of the longstanding quest for justice for the man’s family.
The 12-member jury determined the fate of Aurora, Colorado, officer Randy Roedema and former officer Jason Rosenblatt, but jury selection starts Friday in the trial for the officer who held McClain in the deadly chokehold.
“They were trained. They were told what to do. They were given instructions. They had opportunities, and they failed to choose to de-escalate violence when they needed to, they failed to listen to Mr. McClain when they needed to, and they failed Mr. McClain,” prosecutor Duane Lyons said to the jurors in his final statements about the Aug. 24, 2019, death, according to CNN.
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He punctuated his remarks, saying, “His name was Elijah McClain. He was going home. He was someone who mattered.”
Donald Sisson, attorney for Roedema, had urged the jurors to weigh the fact that his client and his partner were law enforcement officers.
He stated, “If they don’t act, they may not go home to their family that night,” as reported by ABC News.
Harvey Steinberg, representing Rosenblatt, who was fired by the department in 2020, argued that his client was unjustly targeted and was not involved in McClain’s death, particularly because it was the paramedics who administered the ketamine, the drug responsible for the fatality.
Both defense attorneys argued that the use of force was justified because they were in a “high crime area,” and after the young man grabbed Rosenblatt’s gun, the officers were left with “no choice but to take action.”
As the defense meticulously tried to unravel the prosecution’s case, they noted that the opposing side was trying to pull the heartstrings of the jurors.
“Just because there…
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