This is an article about the “unbiased” “scientist” the D.A.’s office used to justify this shooting:
http://www.citypages.com/2010-04-28/news/bill-lewinski-defends-cops-accused-of-excessive-force/
Bill Lewinski defends cops accused of excessive force
Well, no one was shot in the back this case.
I had to post part of your linked article on the “expert” , that the local PD would hire this paid gun to fling whitewash tells me everything I need to know.
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POLICE LOVE LEWINSKI. He has been named to the National Commission on Law Enforcement Integrity and was the keynote speaker last month at the Trexpo Law Enforcement Exposition in Long Beach.
That should come as no surprise; as an expert witness in nearly 100 cases, Lewinski always supports the use of force and always defends police when they are accused of overstepping their bounds. After Minneapolis police shot fellow officer Duy Ngo half a dozen times with a machine gun in 2003, Lewinski testified that the shooting may have been justified. The city ended up settling for $4.5 million.
“It was incredible,” says attorney Robert Bennett. “You had a social scientist on the stand who was offering a false medical diagnosis.”
“This is a guy who’s firmly in the category of junk science,” says Paul Wright, the founder and editor of Prison Legal News, who has tracked Lewinski’s career.
In most cases, Lewinski is called upon to present a scientific-sounding justification for what looks on its face unjustifiable. He tells juries that police have to make split-second decisions if they want to survive, that just because the victim was shot in the back doesn’t mean he wasn’t a threat. And he does it all with the mantle of authority granted by a tenured professorship at one of Minnesota’s public universities.
“Lewinski has found a niche, and it’s a lucrative one,” says Roger Clark, a former police officer who also serves as an expert witness in police use-of-force cases. “The problem is that his work encourages bad police practices and makes it harder to hold anyone accountable when they go wrong.”