0:01

A quick warning. This episode has some explicit language.

0:03

John Barnett got a phone call one night in March, 1991.

0:08

It was a friend of his telling him to turn on the local news.

0:12

The video of four police officers beating Rodney king had just come out.

0:17

He says, you see the, the cop who's kicking the guy on the ground.

0:21

That's your client.

0:23

Barnett's friend was a lawyer for the LAPD's officer's union.

0:26

He wanted Barnett to represent Theodore Pacino.

0:29

One of the four cops on the tape Barnett watched the video and formed his own opinion about what he was seeing the same way everyone else did.

0:38

I thought then, and I think now that it was a shocking display, you can see the brew, the brutality of it Still

0:48

Barnett accepted the job.

0:50

He had never handled a case.

0:51

They got as much attention as this one would.

0:54

When we went to court, we met in an underground place and they told us to put on flak jackets.

1:00

That was my first big clue that this was going to be different because they wanted the lawyers to wear vests and not before.

1:11

And not since has there been a case where they were taking such safety precautions for the defense lawyers, Barnett

1:20

had represented clients accused of committing awful crimes from serial killers to child molesters, to a lot of people in Los Angeles.

1:27

The officers who'd beaten, Rodney king were just as unsympathetic.

1:31

A poll showed that 81% of potential jurors.

1:34

There believe that officers were probably guilty.

1:37

If the defense was to have any hope at all, they need to find a much friendlier jury pool.

1:42

Here's Russell Cole, an attorney for another of the four officers.

1:48

The defense wanted to try to get the trial into a county where there was a better chance for a predominantly white jury.

1:54

No question about it.

1:55

Did anybody ever say that out loud?

1:58

No, not that I recall.

2:00

It's just the truth.

2:03

That was not the argument. The officer's lawyers made.

2:05

When they asked the court to move the trial out of Los Angeles.

2:08

Instead they claimed the nonstop media coverage.

2:11

It created too much bias to have a fair trial there.

2:15

It was wall-to-wall coverage morning to night, every commentator on every issue in the case held the same position.

2:23

These guys, these police officers are guilty and that's what the atmosphere was as we approached litigation.

2:33

And so I felt that we must seek a change of venue.

2:40

The defense's request was a long shot.

2:41

LA saw plenty of high profile trials.

2:44

Lawyers often asked to have those cases moved, but judges seldom granted their request.

2:49

The city had a huge and diverse jury pool.

2:52

The biggest for any superior court in the country.

2:55

There were few places where you were more likely to find 12 with genuinely open minds.

3:01

When you filed that motion, when did you think the odds were of it being granted?

3:08

Statistically, it would be one in a thousand.

3:13

The case had been assigned to superior court. Judge Bernard Kamins when he heard the defense attorney's request for change of venue.

3:19

He waffled first, he scheduled the trial for Los Angeles.

3:23

Then he said, he'd be open to moving it elsewhere.

3:26

The prosecutors were alarmed.

3:28

They knew that a move out of LA could mean a wider jury that would be friendlier to the officers.

3:33

At this point, Cayman's did something out of the ordinary.

3:37

He sent one of his law clerks to the prosecutor's office to reassure them to say, basically, don't worry.

3:44

I've got this indeed.

3:47

The next day came and said again, that he was sure a fair jury could be seated in LA that private message to the prosecutors had been improper judges.

3:57

Aren't supposed to communicate with only one side in a trial.

4:02

Well, it was very unusual and look, it's a very high profile case and everybody's trying to do the best they can.

4:10

And sometimes they don't do the best.

4:13

There is Eventually

4:15

an appeals court. Overruled Caymans.

4:17

Those judges wrote that there had been so much media coverage and so much political fallout, that there is a reasonable likelihood that a fair and impartial trial can not be had in Los Angeles county.

4:29

A month later, that same appeals court removed judge Caymans from the case, they said his communication with the prosecutors indicated that he had abandoned his status as a neutral decision maker and focus the spotlight on himself.

4:42

Three months later, judge Stanley Weisberg was assigned to take his place.

4:47

Weisberg's first task was to decide where the trial would be held.

4:51

We were given three choices.

4:53

That's Terry White, the lead prosecutor in the case, Riverside Alameda and Ventura of those three Alameda county is the most diverse it's home to the city of Oakland, where a lot of black folks live.

5:09

That was the prosecution's preferred choice for white Ventura was by far the worst of the options.

5:17

When did you know about Ventura county?

5:19

If anything? I think we knew that, that there were a lot of law enforcement in that community.

5:27

I assume it didn't look like it would have looked if it was in downtown LA and that's true.

5:32

It did not look like it would have in downtown Los Angeles.

5:35

I'll leave it at that in 1991, just 2% of Ventura county residents were black.

5:42

Here's how another prosecutor, Roger Gunson described the population of Ventura county.

5:48

You want to get away from crime and violence.

5:51

And people equate that with blacks in this community.

5:55

And so they want to get out of Los Angeles county and they want to go elsewhere.

5:58

But where did the people go?

6:00

They go to Ventura county.

6:01

They characterize it at better schools or safer place to live or whatever, but they were all moving out there for the same reason.

6:12

Oh, November 26th, judge Weisberg did what the prosecution had been dreading.

6:16

He chose Ventura county.

6:18

He announced the trial would take place in the city of Simi valley.

6:22

Anywhere in Ventura county would have been bad for the prosecution, but Simi valley might've been the worst possible choice.

6:29

80% of the city was white, only one and a half percent was black and Simi valley had a specific reputation for hostility to black people.

6:38

And the 1950s signs were posted into the city that red, no or dogs allowed the head of Ventura.

6:46

County's NAACP chapter said they would be better off going to Mississippi For the defendants.

6:54

Ventura county would do just fine Russell cold again, You

6:59

know, it was the sense of relief.

7:01

If not being pleased that we ended up in Simi valley, everyone was surprised.

7:05

It was like, wow, whoa, Hey, okay.

7:08

All right. That worked The

7:11

lead prosecutor. Terry White did his best to be optimistic.

7:13

He told the LA times that we think we can get a fair trial in Ventura county.

7:18

I asked him black man, the black man, if he had really believed that I would say I believed it up until the time we, we started selecting the jury.

7:27

Why did judge Stanley Weisberg pick such a white place for trial?

7:32

Where race was an important factor?

7:33

He didn't respond to our request for an interview, but after the trial, he said, he wasn't thinking about demographics.

7:40

When he picked Simi valley, only the cost of moving the trial further away.

7:44

Terry White told me, he thought the judge had a personal reason for choosing Ventura county.

7:48

The prosecutors and defense attorneys lived out of a reticent hotel in Simi valley for the duration of the trial.

7:54

But judge Weisberg, he lived in a home nearby.

7:57

Weisberg said that didn't influence this decision.

8:01

I'll say this.

8:02

He drove to court every day.

8:04

It wasn't easy drive for him.

8:07

This is slow burn.

8:09

I'm your host.

8:10

Joel Anderson in Los Angeles.

8:15

The trial of the four officers charging the beating of Rodney king was all anyone was talking about from city hall to south central, despite the move to see me valley, lots of people still felt that justice would be served after all the whole incident had been caught on tape.

8:32

So how did the prosecution make its case against the police?

8:37

How did the officers hold up under questioning?

8:38

And what happened when the verdict was announced?

8:41

This is episode five.

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Officer's Lawrence Powell, Stacy Koon, Theodore Barcino and Timothy wind were charged with assault and use of excessive force and the beating of Rodney king Powell and Coon.

9:34

We're also charged with filing false police reports on February 5th, 1992, jury selection.

9:41

And the trial of the officers started at the east county courthouse and Simi valley Jurors

9:47

who must decide, will be selected from a pool of 2000 people.

9:51

It's going to be Very hard to find people who have not either seen the videotape or not influenced by 260

9:57

potential jurors showed up at the courthouse over several days of those 260, only six were black Joellen.

10:06

Demetrius worked as a jury consultant for the defense and an interview in 1993, she said she could tell that those six were uncomfortable Because

10:15

there were so few that were there, the ones that were there, obviously we're going to be under a lot of pressure.

10:20

And again, they live in basically a lowly wide area.

10:24

And, you know, there was so much publicity surrounding it that I think that these people just basically were scared and figured out the way to get out of it before they actually got into that, that jury box.

10:36

Those six perspective jurors will all excused, no black people would help decide if the officers were guilty for the prosecution.

10:43

Their problems with the jury went beyond race.

10:46

Potential jurors were asked about their attitudes toward the case, Terry White, the lead prosecutor.

10:52

After we went through those questionnaires, it was clear that we were not going to get a panel that we would have liked prospective jurors who thought the cops in George holiday's videotape used excessive force were eliminated.

11:09

So you're left with people who basically say I have made up my mind as opposed to most of the people who saw the video and said, this is outrageous.

11:20

The

11:20

jurors

11:20

who

11:20

remained

11:20

were

11:20

more

11:20

open

11:20

to

11:20

the

11:20

officer's

11:20

version

11:20

of

11:26

offense. They included one Latino, one Asian American and 10 white people and ranged in age from 34 to 65 on the questionnaires.

11:35

Eight of them expressed strong support for law enforcement.

11:39

It was a dream panel for the defense and for jury consultant, Joellen Demetrius Actually

11:45

ranked people on a pro defense to pro prosecution basis by number.

11:50

So we had four of our top 10 jurors on that jury.

11:56

We had our number one juror, our number two, ger a number four or number seven, the remainder of, of the other eight years.

12:04

We're in the top 50%.

12:05

And I tell you, when I walked out of that courtroom, I have never felt like that.

12:10

I have never felt as though if there could be a slam dunk, this was a slam dunk.

12:16

The trial of the four police officers began on March 5th, almost a year to the day after they'd been caught on tape beating Rodney king, moving the trial to see me valley didn't diminish the media spectacle, newspapers and broadcast outlets sent reporters to cover daily developments.

12:30

The proceedings will also broadcast live on a local TV station and a new cable outlet court TV.

12:37

The station offered gavel to gavel coverage that was available in most major us cities.

12:42

This was one of the first big trials where hundreds of thousands of people could watch from the comfort of their homes.

12:48

On a 14 second delay, the prosecution called 21 witnesses, including one of King's passengers, Brian Allen, and the nurse who treated king after the beating.

12:58

But the jury didn't hear from king himself.

13:01

The prosecutors thought he wouldn't help their case.

13:04

And you're looking back on it. Now, I think he had PTSD.

13:07

I think the, the trauma of the incident was such that he just didn't recall it.

13:16

The prosecution wanted to call an expert on police practices to make the case that the cops had used unnecessary force, but they couldn't find anyone willing to testify these national experts.

13:28

They train police officers.

13:31

So testifying against a police officer is going to affect their business.

13:37

They're not going to be able to, to train police officers anymore.

13:43

If they're going to testify against police officers, prosecutors had also hoped that LAPD chief Daryl gates would take the stand gates had publicly criticized the officer's conduct and promise they would be disciplined, but testifying against them in court was further than he was prepared to go.

13:59

The district attorney's office decided not to subpoena him for fear.

14:03

He might harm their case.

14:04

I just think it was very similar to a code of silence because you have the chief of police who's willing to get on the stand and say what these officers did was wrong.

14:17

That 30 years ago, there weren't too many chiefs of police who would do something like that because they realized that their officers are not going to like it.

14:31

The prosecution did have high hopes for one witness, California highway patrol, officer Melanie singer singer was part of the husband and wife team that pursued king and try to arrest him before the LAPD took control on her first day on the stand, she offered a recollection of how the night began and then of the beating itself, her testimony was shown live on court, TV, and KTTV locally.

14:58

It was the first public account of what happened that night from a law enforcement officer.

15:03

Who'd been at the scene.

15:06

Then officer pal came up to the right of them.

15:08

And a matter of seconds, he took out his Baton.

15:10

He added any power swing and struck the driver right across the top of the cheekbone, splitting his face from the top of his ear to his chin were blood split out, poured out Terry

15:27

White. You know, she was very emotional as most people were that saw this.

15:32

So I thought she was an excellent witness.

15:35

But

15:35

when

15:35

the

15:35

defense

15:35

puts

15:35

singer

15:35

under

15:35

cross

15:35

examination,

15:35

she

15:43

stumbled. I didn't think I'd have the degree of success that I did with Melanie because she heard, I was able to make her look.

15:51

That's Mike Stone, an attorney who represented officer Lawrence, pal singer hit testified that king never tried to attack the officers.

15:58

Now stone handed her a copy of a report.

16:01

She submitted the day after the beating and was she wrote that king had kicked and punched them for those who were following the trial closely on TV.

16:09

This was regulatory singer was supposed to be a key witness for the prosecution, but here she came across as uncertain, even confused.

16:18

Second to the last sentence where it says the subject became almost violent and not faltering at all in his steps, but continue to take swings at the officers.

16:33

Wild swings. Yes, Sir. Wild swings.

16:35

Yes, sir.

16:35

Takes

16:35

it

16:35

says

16:35

to

16:35

take

16:35

swings

16:35

at

16:35

the

16:40

officers. Okay.

16:42

I'm saying how I, how I interpreted.

16:45

So he was swinging wild with What

16:48

are those people watching get home was Rodney king in an interview after the trial, Terry White said that king called him.

16:54

As soon as singer finished her testimony.

16:57

I was very angry. He was using profanity and he was very abusive about Melanie singer.

17:02

And what first struck me about that was gee, he's watching the trial because normally, you know, you don't have these things on television and you're not supposed to.

17:11

Witnesses are normally excluded from the courtroom.

17:13

So witnesses can't see other witnesses testify.

17:16

So that was the first thing that struck my mind.

17:17

Gee, he shouldn't be watching the trial.

17:21

The prosecution didn't have testimony from the victim or a strong expert or a trustworthy eye witness, but they still had the centerpiece of their case.

17:29

George holiday's tape.

17:31

We'll be right back.

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19:06

holiday's video tape seemed like the solution to a persistent problem and police brutality cases.

19:11

Finally, there was concrete and visceral evidence of violence that police couldn't deny or downplay.

19:17

Terry White made that evidence.

19:19

The focus of his case, The

19:21

crux of this trial is the videotape that caught the four officers in the act this morning, the prosecutor's pictures focused strongly as this.

19:30

You have a man who was down a man who was not aggressive.

19:33

A man who was not resisting.

19:34

You had those blows from officer Powell and officer wins.

19:39

Bhutan's continue and continue and continue In

19:44

his opening statement. White plate, George holiday's entire 81 second recording of the beating and not the 68 second edit that was aired over and over again on TV wiped out.

19:55

The full video made his case even stronger and part because of the audio track.

19:59

It was always incredible to me that the defense did not try to exclude the entire version of the tape because an entire version of the tape, you could hear people talking who were across the street, talking about how bad the beating was.

20:17

The defense attorneys thought the extended video actually helped their case at the start of that longer version of the tape.

20:25

It looks like Rodney king is maybe lunging toward one of the cups.

20:28

Most people that never seen that the edited version shows the officer's beating a submissive victim.

20:34

The full tape is still brutal, but makes some more plausible case that the cops felt threatened by king.

20:39

The defense repeatedly played the tape, hammering home.

20:43

That point of view. There's another reason that tape didn't bolster prosecution's case as much as Terry White had hoped.

20:49

Wow, I had seen the tape so much.

20:51

I kind of glaze over.

20:53

Like I was always looking for something different.

20:55

That's Rick Serato of the LA times.

20:57

He covered the trial every day sitting right behind the defendants, Which

21:02

was the, you know, exhibit a, all the way through this trial.

21:05

And, and yeah, you, you do get desensitized by it.

21:10

That was part of the defensive strategy.

21:11

The hope was to numb the jurors to the brutality of the tape defense attorney, John Barnett.

21:18

When you see it 10 times, then you sort of know the ending when you see it a hundred times and you see it in slow motion and you have it dissected by use of force experts by each witness.

21:34

When you look at it, frame by frame, you lose or one loses the effect of it.

21:44

So the video wasn't the game changer the prosecutors had wanted it to be, but it did present the defense with the difficult question.

21:50

Why did the beating go on for as long as it did, even if you saw the images of king lunging at the officers and believe that they felt threatened, it was hard to understand why they continued to beat and kick him for more than a minute.

22:04

After he had fallen to the ground, that was what the four defendants had to explain.

22:08

When they took the stand on March 19th, the defense called Stacy Koon to the witness stand Coon was the LAPD Sergeant who took control of the arrest that night.

22:19

He was the first accused officer to publicly share his perspective on the king beating.

22:24

Coon began his testimony talking about himself.

22:27

He spoke about growing up in Southern California, earning master's degrees and providing for his wife of 20 years and their five children.

22:35

He said he joined the LAPD because he wanted to help people.

22:39

Then he moved under Rodney king and the events of March 3rd, 1991.

22:45

His attorney played George holiday's video tape.

22:47

The tape that seemed to incriminate him.

22:50

Coon used it to make the case that he was not guilty of using excessive force using a wooden pointer.

22:56

He broke down the video. Second by second, he pointed to moments when he said king was trying to get up and attack.

23:02

The officers, comb sounded confident and coolly analytical.

23:06

He relished the attention and his autobiography.

23:09

He claimed the TV audience more than doubled when he was on the stand.

23:14

I directed them to hit Mr.

23:16

King and his joints. I ordered them to hit his elbows, his wrist, his knees, and his ankles.

23:20

Why did you do that?

23:22

Because from my perception, the blows that had initially struck his arms and legs and torso were not having any effect at all.

23:29

And w when you say any effect at all, what were you trying to accomplish?

23:34

Sergeant? I was trying to get Mr.

23:36

King to submit you didn't pay in compliance.

23:39

And what made you believe that he had not complied?

23:42

He gave me no, either through facial or through any non-verbal that he was feeling any pain, John

23:51

Barnett. And he was one of the best witnesses I've ever seen.

23:54

Any time, anywhere he's in the worst position.

23:58

He's been characterized as leader of a bunch of thugs in uniform, and he was the best witness I've ever seen anywhere.

24:07

Koons cross examination. The next day, Terry White seated the floor to his co-counsel Alan Yochelson that part of Kuhn's testimony made all three network news broadcast.

24:17

Later that evening Under

24:18

cross examination, Sergeant Stacy Koon conceded that the beating officers under his command gave Rodney king was the most violent use of force he had seen in his 14 and a half years on the job.

24:29

At the same time, he insisted that the use of force some 56 blows was necessary Watching

24:36

the video tape. Now, is it your testimony that every one of the blows that you see on there is a justified use of force.

24:43

It's a reasonable and necessary using the minimum force yesterday.

24:47

That is my testimony.

24:49

Kuhn said he believed king was able to withstand the blows and the electric shocks from Kuhn's taser because he was high on PCP king, never showed a trace of the drug in his system.

24:59

The prosecution was arguing that no one deserved to get beaten this brutally by the police, no matter who they were.

25:05

Stacy Coon was saying the king wouldn't have complied.

25:08

Otherwise that king had been the aggressor that the officers had been the ones under attack.

25:14

Let's

25:14

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a

25:14

quick

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break.

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26:28

So far, a lot of things had gone well for the defense.

26:30

They'd gotten a rare change of venue and what seemed like an extremely sympathetic jury.

26:35

They neutralize the prosecution strongest evidence, and the defendant with the highest profile had delivered a persuasive performance.

26:42

The witness stand, but not everything broke their way of the four defendants Lawrence Powell was the youngest and the most vulnerable.

26:54

He led his division in arrest and it developed a reputation for being more cocky than competent.

26:58

He had landed the most blows on king and the prosecution had some damning evidence against him.

27:04

They had shown the jury racist messages he'd sent on his patrol car's computer and the messages in which he joked about the beating.

27:11

And when it was his turn to testify, he was no Stacy Koon, Terry White.

27:17

The thing about Lawrence Powell was he just had a lot of explaining to do.

27:22

And, you know, he didn't explain very well on April 1st, Paul testified that he was following Stacy Koons orders.

27:32

He said of Kuhn when he tells me to do things and they're in department policy and I feel they're reasonable.

27:39

Then by all means you do them or you're in trouble.

27:42

Terry White press Powell about who was to blame.

27:45

If the beading got out of hand, how was evasive for those tuning into the trial?

27:50

It was a joke to watch them spar and news reports.

27:53

Most correspondents who'd been in the courtroom, led their stories with the clash between the two, Hypothetically

28:00

speaking, if there was excessive force used out there that night, would Sergeant Kuehn be responsible for that excessive force at that's not a question that can be answered.

28:14

It doesn't make sense. It's not a question you want to answer.

28:16

Is it?

28:18

And in one of the trials, most combative exchanges, white X Powell, about one of the computer messages and an earlier incident Paolo had used the term gorillas in the mist to describe black people.

28:28

It was the first time race was directly addressed during the trial.

28:32

And the confrontation was later replayed on cable news.

28:35

It was one thing to read their exchange in print, but quite another to see and hear it on TV, Even

28:42

though he is a suspect. And even though he is suspected of committing a crime, this, this man is still a human being.

28:48

Isn't he? Yes, sir.

28:50

He deserves to be treated like a human being.

28:53

Didn't he? Yes, sir. All right.

28:54

He wasn't an animal wasn't no, sir.

28:58

Just acting like one. He wasn't. He was just acting like one.

29:00

Yes, sir. Was he acting like a gorilla?

29:03

No, sir. Terry White.

29:05

Oh goodness.

29:06

It

29:06

was

29:08

horrible. He didn't do very good at all.

29:10

Paul did a poor job defending his actions, but one of the other defendants, Theodore Pacino tried to separate himself from his colleagues entirely during opening statements.

29:23

And it become clear that there would be a break between Barcino and the other officers lawyers for Coon pal and Timothy wind argued that everything those officers had done to king was reasonable and appropriate.

29:35

Racino his attorney.

29:37

John Barnett said that the beating had gotten out of hand and that his client had tried to stop it.

29:42

My Story was going to be Ted Racino has, has nothing much to do with this.

29:48

And you can make whatever decisions you want about the other officers For

29:54

the prosecution. This was an opportunity to play the officers against each other.

29:58

When you have one defendant, basically saying that the other defendants are guilty, that's that's favorable to the, to the prosecution.

30:08

It was clear that he was selling out the other three defendants on the witness stand.

30:14

Racino said that he yelled at pal to get the hell off king.

30:18

And that he called on Coon to intervene.

30:20

Barcino testified that when the beating was over, he returned to his patrol car, his partner, a rookie who hadn't participated in the beating was waiting there.

30:29

Pacino said he told them that the other officers had gone overboard from his seat behind the defense LA times, reporter Rick Serrano thought Bertino's testimony.

30:39

Might've sealed the officer's fate.

30:40

You can see that Attention, maybe power is going to convince me, but I'm not.

30:44

I'm trying to save my skin, but I'm not going to roll on this guy.

30:46

And like you saw that, that blue wall crumbling right there in the courthouse, Closing

30:53

arguments and the trial of the four LAPD officers started Monday, April 20th, Terry White ended his case where he'd started almost two months earlier with George holiday's videotape and a three and a half hour presentation, white plate that taped several times and referred to more than a dozen charts and diagrams.

31:10

He reminded the jurors of the injuries.

31:13

King suffered at the hands feet and buttons of the LAPD.

31:16

White was beamed into millions of homes across the country on the national news Prosecutor.

31:22

Terry White told the jurors that the entire case comes down to one question.

31:26

Do they believe their own eyes?

31:29

This was a man in pain. You can clearly see that on the video and yet they continue to strike him again and again and again.

31:36

And at some point you have to look at that video and say enough is enough.

31:46

The next day, Lawrence Paul's attorney Mike Stone had his opportunity to address the jury during final Arguments

31:52

lawyers on both sides interrupted repeatedly Anger.

31:55

These officers, these defendants do not get paid to lose street fights.

32:03

They don't get paid to roll around in the dirt with the likes of Rodney Glen king Stone

32:10

X, the jury to sympathize, not with the man being beaten, but what the officer's doing, the beating.

32:16

He said, we leave it to them to take care of the main streets so that we can safely enjoy our lives so that we can raise our families and neighborhoods.

32:25

One writer called Stone's argument, a masterful appeal to the prejudices of the white suburban Simi valley jury.

32:32

John Barnett made a different case.

32:35

He told the jury that his client had been ostracized for taking a stand against his colleagues.

32:40

He said, Barcino stood and stands.

32:44

The loan against the power of the state Barnett told me, he figured at least one officer would be found guilty.

32:50

If the jury believed that Racino had tried and failed to stop the beating, the other officers would be convicted.

32:55

If they didn't believe him, they'd be likely to find him guilty too.

33:00

It was hard to see how they could all be acquitted.

33:05

I was very hopeful that Ted would be found not guilty.

33:08

Cause I thought really he was not guilty.

33:11

Now the jury would decide. And despite the change of venue, the favorable Gerry and the diminished impact at the tape, it still seemed like the prosecution would prevail.

33:20

CA can you take me back to the morning of April 29th?

33:24

When do you remember where you were when you found out that the jury had reached?

33:28

I know it was in the courthouse.

33:30

I think we got towed and the jury reached a verdict before noon.

33:36

And then the judge wanted to meet with us in chambers prior to the verdict being read, the trial had run for 55 days and the jury had been deliberating for seven.

33:48

Everyone in the courtroom had seen George holiday's video tape from every possible angle.

33:53

Terry White says that when judge Stanley Weissburg called the attorneys to his chambers, it was clear which way the judge thought the trial had gone.

34:01

He tells the defense, your clients are going into custody because you know, normally when someone is found guilty, the only question is, are you going to be remanded into custody now or not?

34:15

And he was telling them, you're going to be remanded into custody.

34:18

In that moment.

34:21

White felt certain that the officers who'd beaten, Rodney king were going to be convicted.

34:25

Let's

34:25

take

34:25

a

34:25

quick

34:28

break.

34:28

If

34:28

you're

34:28

listening

34:28

to

34:28

this

34:28

show,

34:28

then

34:28

you're

34:28

probably

34:28

a

34:28

fan

34:28

of

34:28

unique

34:28

and

34:28

interesting

34:47

stories. I want to tell you about pocket.

34:49

Pocket is a website and app that finds the most interesting thought provoking and entertaining articles from trusted sources around the internet and puts them all in one place low on time pocket lets you save articles as well as anything else you find online like videos, recipes and shopping pages to your personal pocket for digging into later pocket will even read the stories you saved aloud to you.

35:13

Like a podcast of back-to-back articles want to go deep on a topic.

35:17

They have some incredible curated collections that are hand-selected by pocket editors or an expert pocket partner like me.

35:24

Want to learn more about what we discussed on season six of slow burn, go to pocket.com/slate and check out slow burn to see my collection On the afternoon of April 29th, Rick Serrano was reading a book in the driver's seat of his yellow Mustang convertible.

35:47

I we're just sitting there and thinking this could go to a hung jury and some another reporter came up and said, they've got a Serrano

35:52

hustle back to the courtroom.

35:54

It was so crowded that people were turned away and had to wait outside.

35:58

The jurors filed in betraying no emotion on their faces.

36:02

I just remember the judge looking at the verdict forms before he hands it to the clerk because the judge normally will look at the verdict forms.

36:10

And I remember the look on his face told me this may not be good because our, I remember he w he looked stunned when he, when he looked at the verdict forms, My

36:24

see judge Stanley Weisberg on the bench. Let's cut to the courtroom right now.

36:27

We, the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant.

36:32

Warren's M Powell not guilty of the crime of assault.

36:35

Yeah,

36:44

I was, I was stunned like everyone else was, It

36:47

was just stunning. It

36:49

was surreal.

36:52

The jurors had acquitted, the four officers on all, but one count.

36:55

They did lock down a single excessive force charge against Lawrence Powell.

37:00

Judge Weisberg declared a mistrial on that count.

37:03

The officers turned to hug their attorneys while their family members burst into tears behind them.

37:08

John Barnett My

37:11

hand on Ted's shoulder, you know, like you would your kit, you know, when something very important is going to happen, you know, it's a, it's a instinctive reaction and there's relief.

37:29

The officers were among the few people at the courthouse in the mood to celebrate in the parking lot outside anger was building reaction to the verdict, started to play out on local TV, just like the trial Outside

37:41

the courthouse, angry demonstrators gathered to protest and some taunted.

37:45

The former defendants as they left to go home and celebrate.

37:48

Ted

37:48

Pacino

37:48

was

37:48

quickly

37:48

hustled

37:48

out

37:48

to

37:48

a

37:48

waiting

37:48

car

37:48

and

37:48

was

37:48

escorted

37:48

by

37:48

Ventura

37:56

county. Sheriff deputies, Stacy Coon was surrounded by protestors as he and his lawyer made their way through the parking lot.

38:06

Tim wind made a quick exit from a side door and had nothing to say to reporters Across

38:12

Southern California. Thousands of people took to the streets and protest minutes after the trial was over more than 300 demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse.

38:21

Angry crowds also started gathering in south central LA and near the lake view terrorist site where Rodney king had been beaten this a modern day.

38:33

All these buttons here and everybody in the whole Community

38:35

has experience and witnessed a total justice today.

38:38

And we've got going forward.

38:43

King had been watching at his home in studio city.

38:45

He wrote in his autobiography that when he heard the verdict, his shocking rage was so overwhelming that I just wanted to close my eyes and open them as another person someplace, a thousand miles away, king civil attorney, Steve Lerman had gone to the trial every day after the verdicts, he issued a warning to the city of Los Angeles.

39:05

It's a good time folks.

39:07

If you've got a plane ticket, cash it in and get the heck out of Dodge.

39:10

This is going to be a bad place to live.

39:12

Terry White trudged outside the courtroom to face the media.

39:16

Yeah, you have to be composed because you don't want to say anything.

39:20

That's going to be inappropriate.

39:22

Well, I'm not gonna say I

39:25

don't want to imply that this is a miscarriage of justice.

39:28

This is the way our system works.

39:30

You present the evidence to a impartial trier of fact, and that trier of fact comes to a verdict.

39:36

And sometimes you disagree with the verdict, but that's the way the system works.

39:41

I asked him how it felt to have to ex stoic in that moment.

39:43

I mean, one of them, what am I going to do?

39:46

Am I going to go out and say, oh, this jury is wrong.

39:48

And this jury is horrible and this jury is terrible.

39:51

No, I'm not going to do that.

39:52

The way that you are that you work with jury trials is you have to respect their decision.

40:00

Even if you disagree with it, you have to risk.

40:04

Perfect. Why don't you have to respect it?

40:06

I mean, cause it's not uncommon for somebody to say this is a miscarriage of justice or so on and so forth.

40:11

Why did you think that the jury's decision was worth respecting?

40:14

I am a prosecutor.

40:16

I am a trial attorney.

40:19

Ultimately

40:19

the

40:19

jury

40:19

makes

40:19

the

40:24

decision.

40:24

We

40:24

present

40:24

our

40:26

case. The defense presents their case. And ultimately the jury makes the decision.

40:30

I am not going to stand up there and disrespect the system.

40:35

Terry White may not have been willing to go that far, but plenty of people were as Los Angeles and the nation would soon find out Next week on slow burn, LA catches fire.

41:00

And they said them, cops them calves got off.

41:04

And my stomach, man, just like I was stunned.

41:08

The streets took over, you know, for three to five days, you know what I'm saying?

41:12

A straight fucking anarchy.

41:14

You know what I'm saying? Just pure Wallace Snus, Slow

41:21

burn is a production of slate. Plus Slate's membership program.

41:24

You can sign up for slate plus to hear a bonus episode of the show.

41:27

And at this week's bonus episode, you'll be hearing from Russell Cole, one, the defendant's attorneys head over to slate.com/slow burn to sign up and listen.

41:38

Now it's only a dollar for your first month.

41:41

We couldn't make slow burn without the support of slate plus, so please sign up.

41:46

If you can head over to slate.com/slow burn, slow

41:50

burn is produced by Jason daily own Ethan Brooks, Sophie summer grad, Jasmine Ellis enemy, Joel Anderson, editorial direction by Josh Levine and Gabriel Roth artwork is by Jim cook.

42:05

Our theme music was composed by Don will mixing by merit.

42:08

Jacob. Some of the audio you heard in this week's episode comes from the department of special research collections at the UC Santa Barbara library.

42:17

Thanks to their team.

42:18

Also, thanks to Rick Serrano, whose new book Barry truths and the Hyatt sidewalks.

42:24

The legacy of America's epic structural failure is out now and available anywhere you purchase books special.

42:31

Thanks to voice tracks. West Lou cannon Jackson fender Beckon, mark Steinberg, Stan, miss Rocky Gerrit hope low-end Lou Janae, Desmond Harris, Amber Smith, bill Carey, Meredith Moran, Seth brown, Rachel Strong child to Derek Johnson, Asha Solutia and Katie Rayford.

42:53

Thanks for listening.

42:54

If

42:54

you're

42:54

listening

42:54

to

42:54

this

42:54

show,

42:54

then

42:54

you're

42:54

probably

42:54

a

42:54

fan

42:54

of

42:54

unique

42:54

and

42:54

interesting

43:14

stories. I want to tell you about pocket pocket is a website and app that finds the most interesting thought provoking and entertaining articles from trusted sources around the internet and puts them all in one place low one time pocket, lets you save articles as well as anything else you find online like videos, recipes and shopping pages to your personal pocket for digging into later pocket will even read stories.

43:38

You've saved aloud to you like a podcast of back-to-back articles want to go deep on a topic.

43:43

They also have some incredible curated collections that are hand selected by pocket editors or an expert pocket partner like me.

43:51

Want to learn more about what we discussed in today's episode, go to pocket.com/slate and check out slow burn to see my collection of articles that dig deep into everything we talked about.

44:02

A quick quick warning. This episode has some explicit language. John Barnett got a phone call one night in March nineteen ninety one. It was a friend of his telling him to turn on the local news. The video of four police officers beating Rodney King had just come out. And he He says, you see the, the cop who's kicking the guy on the S6, you see the the cop who's kicking the guy on the ground. That's your client. Barnett's friend was lawyer for the LAPD's S6 union. He wanted Bardett to represent Theodore S6, one of the four cups on the tape. Barnett watched the video and formed his own opinion about what he was S6, the same way everyone else did. I thought then and I think now that it was a shocking S6, you can see the brutality of it. Still Barnett accepted the S6, Barnett accepted job. He had never handled a case that got as much attention as this one would. When we went to court, we met in an underground place and they told us to put on flack jackets. That was my first big clue that was gonna be different because they wanted the lawyers to wear vests and not before and not since has there been a case where they were taking such safety precautions for the defense lawyers. Barnett represented clients accused of committing awful crimes from serial killer to child molesters. To a lot of people in Los Angeles, the officers who'd beaten Rodney King were just as unsympathetic. A poll showed that eighty one percent of potential jurors there believed the officers were probably guilty. As the defense was to have any hope at all, they'd need to find a much friendlier jury pool. Here's S6 Cole, an attorney for another of the four officers. The defense wanted to try to get the trial into a County where there was a better chance for a predominantly white jury. No question about it. Did anybody ever say that out loud? No. Not that I recall. It's just the truth. That was not the That was not the argument the S6 lawyers made when they asked the court to move the trial out of Los Angeles. Instead, they claimed the nonstop media coverage and created too much bias to have a fair trial there. It was wall to wall coverage morning tonight. Every commentator on every issue in the case held the same position. These guys These police officers are guilty, and that's what the atmosphere was as we approached litigation. And so I felt that we must seek a change of venue. The defense's request was a long The defense's request was a long shot. LA saw plenty of high profile trials. Lawyers often ask to have those cases moved, but judges seldom granted their request. The city had a huge and diverse jury pool, the biggest for any superior court in the country. There were few places where you were more likely to find twelve jurors with genuinely open minds. When you file that motion, what did you think the odds were of it being granted? Statistically, it would be one in a S6, it would be one in a thousand. The case had been assigned to Superior Court Judge Bernard Cayman. When he heard the defense attorney's request for change of venue, he waffled. First, he scheduled the trial for Los Angeles. Then he said he'd be open to moving it elsewhere. The prosecutors were alarmed. They knew that a move out of LA could meet a wider jury, would be friendlier to the officers. At this point, Jayson did something out of the ordinary. He sent one of his law clerks to the prosecutor's office to reassure them. To S6, basically, don't worry, I've got this. Indeed, the next day came and said, again, that he was sure a fair jury could be seated in LA. That private message to the prosecutors had been improper, Judges aren't supposed to communicate with only one side in a trial. Well, it was very unusual. And look, S6 a very high profile case and everybody's trying to do the best they can and sometimes they don't do the best there is. Eventually, an appeals court overruled Jayson Those judges wrote that there had been so much media coverage and so much political fallout that there is a reasonable likelihood that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had in Los Angeles County. A month later, That same appeals court removed judge S6 from the case. They said his communication with the prosecutors indicated that he had abandoned his status as a neutral decision maker and S6 the spotlight on himself. Three months later, judge Stanley Weisberg was assigned to take his place. Weisberg's first task was to decide where the trial would be held. We were given three choices. That's Terry White, the lead prosecutor in the case. Riverside, Alameda, and Ventura. Of those three, Alameda County is the most diverse. It's home to the city of Oakland, where a lot of black folks live. That was the prosecution's preferred choice. For white, Ventura was by far the worst of the options. What did you know about Ventura County, if anything? I think we knew that that there were a lot of law enforcement in that community. I assume it didn't look like it would have looked if it was in downtown LA. S6 true. It did not look like it would have been downtown Los Angeles. I'll leave it at that. In nineteen ninety one, S6 two percent of Ventura County residents were black. Here's how another prosecutor, Roger S6, described the population of Ventura County. You wanna get away from crime and violence and people equate that with S6 in this community. S6 they wanna get out of Los Angeles County they wanna go S6. But where did the people go? They go to Ventura County. They characterize it at better schools or S6 and place to live or whatever, but they were all moving out there for the same reason. On November twenty sixth, Judge S6 did with the prosecution had been dreading. He chose Ventura County. He announced the trial would take place in the city of Cimi Valley. Anywhere in Ventura County would have been bad for the S6 fusion. But S6 Valley might have been the worst possible choice. Eighty percent of the city was white, only one and a half percent was black. And S6 Valley had a specific reputation for hostility to black people. In the nineteen fifties, signs were post into the city that read, no niggas of dogs allowed. The head of Ventura counties in AACP S6 they would be better off going to Mississippi. For the defendants, Ventura County would do just fine. Russell Cole again, you know, it was the sense of relief if not being pleased that De ended up in S6 Valley. Everyone was surprised. It was like, wow. Oh, hey. Okay. Alright. That worked. The lead lead S6, Terry White, did his best to be optimistic. He told the LA times that think we can get a fair trial in Ventura County. I asked him, black man to black man. If he had really believed that, I would say I believed it up until the time we S6 selecting jury. Why did judge Stanley Weisberg pick such a white place for trial where race was an important factor? He didn't respond to our request for an interview. But after the trial, he said he wasn't thinking about demographics. When he picked Simi valley, only the cost of moving the trial further when he picks Semi Valley, only the cost of moving the trial further away. Terry White told me he thought the judge had a personal reason for choosing Ventura County. The prosecutors and defense attorneys lived out of a Radisson Hotel in Seemie Valley, for the duration of the trial. But judge S6, he lived in a home nearby. Weisberg said that didn't influence his decision. I'll say this, De drove to court every day. It was an easy drive for him. This is slow burn. I'm your host, Joel Anderson. In Los Angeles, the trial of the four officers charged in the beating of Rodney King was all anyone was talking about. From city hall to S6 Central. Despite the move to See De Valley, lots of people still felt the justice would be served. After all, the whole incident had been caught on tape. So how did the prosecution make its case against the police? How did the S6 hold up under questioning? And what happened when the verdict was what happened when the verdict was announced? This is episode is episode 5, the system. S6 burn is brought to you by MailChimp. MailChimp is in the business of growing MailChimp is in the business of growing businesses. So no matter what stage you're in MailChimp smart marketing platform can help you grow and get your brand out So no matter what stage you're in, MailChimp's smart marketing platform can help you grow and get your brand out there. You're more than a small business, and Mailchimp's got intelligent marketing tools to help you grow it. With marketing automation, design tools, and recommendations all work together to help you sell more stuff. MailChimp built for growing Mailchimp, built for growing businesses. Officer's Lawrence Powell, Stacy Koon, Theodore Barcino and Timothy wind were charged with assault and use of excessive force and the beating of Rodney king Powell and S6 Lawrence Powell, Stacey Kuhn, Theodore S6, and Timothy Wind, were charged with assault and use of excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Powell and Koon were also charged with filing false police reports. On February fifth, nineteen ninety two, jury selection in the trial of the officers started at the East County Court House in S6 Valley. The jurors who must decide will be selected from a pool of two thousand people. It's gonna be very hard to find people who have not either seen the videotape or are not influenced by it. Two hundred and sixty potential jurors showed up at the courthouse over several days. Of those two hundred and sixty, only six were black. Joel and Demetrius worked as a jury consultant for the defense. In an interview in nineteen ninety three, she said she could tell that those six were uncomfortable. Because there were so few that were there, the ones that were there S6 were going to be under a lot of pressure. And again, they live in in basically a a lily wide area. And, you know, there was so much publicity surrounding it that think these people just base to sleep were scared and figured out the way to get out of it before they actually got into that battery box. Those six prospective jurors were all S6. No black people would help decide if the officers were guilty. For the prosecution, their problems with the jury went beyond race. Potential jurors were asked about their attitudes toward the case. Terry White, the lead prosecutor. After we went through those questionnaires, it was clear that we were not going to get a panel that we would have liked prospective jurors who thought the cops in George holiday's videotape used excessive force were S6, after we went through those questionnaires, it was clear that we were not gonna get a panel that we would have liked. Prospective jurors who thought the cops in George Holliday's videotape used excessive force were eliminated. So you're left with people who basically say I have made up my mind as opposed to most of the people who saw the video and said this is outrageous. The jurors who remained were more open to the S6 version of S6. They included one Latino, one Asian American, and ten white people. And ranged in age from thirty four to sixty five. On the questionnaires, eight of them S6 strong support for law enforcement. It was a dream panel for the defense and for jury consultant Joelle and Demetrias. We actually rank people on a protest to pro prosecution basis by number. De had four of our top ten that jury, we had our number one juror, our number two juror, our number four, our number seven. The remainder of of the other eight jurors we're in the top fifty percent. Okay. And I I tell you, when I walk out of that courtroom, I have never felt like that. have never felt as though that the could be a slam dunk. This was a slam dunk. The trial of the four police officers began on March 5th, almost a year to the day after they'd been caught on tape beating Rodney king, moving the trial to see me valley didn't diminish the media spectacle, newspapers and broadcast outlets sent reporters to cover daily trial of the four police officers began on March fifth, almost a year to the day after as they've been caught on tape beating Rodney King. Moving the trial to S6 Valley didn't diminish the media spectacle. News papers and broadcast outlets set reporters to cover daily development. S6. The proceedings were also broadcast live on a local TV station and a new cable outlet, Court TV. The station offered gavel to gavel coverage that was available in most major US cities. This was one of the first big trials where hundreds of thousands of people could watch from the comfort of their homes on a fourteen second delay. The prosecution called twenty one witnesses included one of King's passengers, Brian Jayson, and the nurse who treated King after the beating. But the jury didn't hear from King himself. The prosecutors thought he wouldn't help their case. You're looking back on it now. I think he he had PTSD. I think the the trauma of the incident was such that he just didn't recall it. The prosecution wanted to call an expert on police S6. To make the case that the cops had used unnecessary force. But they couldn't find anyone willing to testify. These national experts they train police officers. So testifying for against the police officer is gonna affect their business. They're not gonna be able to to train police officers anymore if they're gonna testify against police officers. Prosecutors had also hoped that LAPD chief Daryl S6 would take the stand. Gates had publicly criticized the officers conduct and promised they would be disciplined. But testifying against them in court was further than he was prepared to go. The district attorney's office decided not to subpoena him for fear he might harm their case. I just think it was very similar to a code of silence because when you have the chief of police who's willing to get on the stand and say, what these officers did was wrong, back thirty years ago, there weren't too many chiefs of police who would do something like that because they realized that their officers are not gonna like it. The prosecution did have high hopes for one witness. California highway patrol officer Melanie Singer, Singer was part of the husband and wife team that pursued King and tried to arrest him before the LAPD took control. On her first day on the stand, she offered a detailed recollection of how the night began, and then of the beating itself. Her testimony was shown live on Court TV and KT TV locally. It was the first public account of what happened at night from a law enforcement officer who'd been at the name. Then officer Powell came up to the right of him. In a matter of seconds, he took out his baton. He added any power S6. And struck the driver right across the top of the cheekbone, splitting his face from the top of his ear to his chin, where blood S6 split out Forward out. Terry Terry White. You know, she was very emotional as most people were that saw S6, So I thought she was an excellent witness. But when the defense put Singer under cross examination, She stumbled. I didn't think I'd have the degree of success that I did with Melanie because she heard was able to make her look foolish, I think. That's Mike Stone, an attorney who represented officer Lawrence Powell. Singer had testified that King never tried to attack the S6. Now Stone handed her a copy of a report. She submitted the day after the beating, in which she wrote that King had kicked and punched them. For those who were following the trial closely on TV, this was revelatory. Singer was supposed to be a key witness for the prosecution. But here she came across as uncertain, even confused. Second to the last sentence where it says the subject became almost violent and not faltering at all in his steps, but continue to take swings at the the last sentence where it says the subject became almost violent and not faltering at all in his S6, but continued to take swings at the officers. Wild S6. Yes, sir. Wild wings? Yes, sir. Takes it says to take swings at the officers. Correct? I'm saying how I, how I I'm saying how I I how I interpreted. He was swinging wildly. What are those people watching get home was Rodney king in an interview after the trial, Terry White said that king called of those people watching Get Home was Rodney King. In an interview after the trial, Terry White said the King called him as soon as Singer finished a testimony. And he was very angry. He was in profanity. And he was very abusive about Melanie Singer. And what first struck me about that was, see, he's watching the trial. Because normally, you know, you don't have these things on television and you're not supposed to witnesses are normally excluded from a the courtroom, so witness can't see other witnesses testify. So that was the first thing that struck my so that was the first thing this drug my life. Gee, he shouldn't be watching the trial. The prosecution didn't have testimony from the victim. Or a strong expert, or a trustworthy eye S6. But they still had the centerpiece of their S6. George holidays tape. We'll be right back. The season of gifting is officially season of gifting is officially here. And if you're scrambling to find just the right presence for your favorite people, do yourself favor and check out And if you're scrambling to find just the right presence for your favorite people, De yourself a favor and check out Brooklyn. And even if you waited until the last minute and Hey look, no judgment, we've all been in. Even if you waited until the last minute and hey, look, no judgment. We've all been there. Their gifts always seem to score major Their gifts always seem to score major points. Whether you're shopping since for candle lover or grabbing a gift card, AKA, the gift that keeps on giving this kind of comfort is always a hit for the you're shopping since for a candle lover or grabbing a gift card, AKA, the gift that keeps on giving, this kind of comfort is always a hit for the holidays. There's never a morning when I'm excited to get out of bed because of course my Brook Linen, Lux Duvet, S6, and pillowcases give me a level of comfort and coziness that I didn't even know was possible in my own home. It's the gift that I gave to It's the gift that I gave to myself. But of course, when it is time to get up, I can do so and do it with ease because this Brooklyn bed set helps me get that good logs on sheep count and kind of sleep that we all But of course, When it is time to get up, I can do so and do it with ease because this Brooklyn embed set helps me get that good, logs S6, sheep count and kind of sleep that we all deserve. Give the gift of comfort this holiday season and save while you do it. Go to brooklyn dot com and use the promo code. Slow burn for $20 off with a minimum purchase of S6 burn for twenty dollars off with a minimum purchase of one hundred dollars. That's BR00KLINEN dot com and enter promo code slow burn. For twenty dollars off with a minimum purchase of one hundred dollars. Brooklyn in dot com promo code S6. George holiday's videotape seemed like the solution to a persistent problem in police brutality cases. Finally, there was concrete and visceral evidence, a violence that police couldn't deny or downplay. Terry White made that evidence the focus of his S6. The crux of this trial is the videotape that caught the four officers in the act this morning, the prosecutor's pictures focused strongly as crux of this trial is the videotape that caught the four officers in the act. This morning, the prosecutor's pictures focused strongly as his words. You have a man who was down a man who was not have a man who was down, a man who was not aggressive, a man who was not S6. Yet those blows from officer Powell, S6 Wednesday baton's continue and continue and continue. In his opening statement, White played George holiday's entire eighty one second recording of the beating, and not the sixty eight second edit that was aired over and over again on TV. White thought the full video made his case even stronger. In part because of the audio track, it was always incredible to me that the defense did not try to exclude the entire version of the tape. Because an entire version of the tape, you could hear people talking who were cross street talking about how bad the beating was. The defense attorneys thought the extended video actually helped their S6. At the start of that longer version of the tape, it looks like Rodney King is maybe lumbering toward one of the S6. Most people had never seen that. The edited version shows the officers beating a submissive victim. The full tape is still brutal. But makes a more plausible case that the cops felt threatened by a king. The defense repeatedly played the tape, hammering home that point of view. There's another reason the tape didn't bolster the prosecution's S6, as much as Terry White had hoped. I had seen the tape so much. I couldn't glaze over it. I I was always looking for something different. That's Rick Serato of the LA S6 Rick Serrato of the LA Times. He covered the trial every day. Sitting right behind the defendants. So the tape was was, you know, exhibit a all the way through this trial. And and, yeah, you need to get desensitized by That was part of the S6 strategy. The hope was to numb the jurors to the brutality of the tape. Defense attorney John Barnett. Barnett. When you see it 10 times, then you sort of know the ending when you see it a hundred times and you see it in slow motion and you have it dissected by use of force experts by each you see it ten times, then you sort of know the ending. When you see it a hundred times, and you see it in slow motion and you have it dissected by use of force experts, by each S6. When you look at it frame by frame, you lose or one loses the effect of it. So the video wasn't the game changer the prosecutors had wanted it to be, but it did present the defense with the difficult S6 the video wasn't the game changer the prosecutors had wanted it to De, but it did present the defense with difficult question. Why did the beating go on for as long as it did? Even if you saw the images of king lumbering at the officers and believe that they felt threatened, It was hard to understand why they continued to beat and kick him for more than a minute. After he had fallen to the ground, that was what the four defendants had to after he had fallen to the ground. That was what the four defendants had to explain. When they took the stand. On March nineteenth, the defense called Stacey Kuhn to the witness stand. Kuhn was the LAPD sergeant who took control of the arrest that night. He was the first accused officer to publicly share his perspective on the king beating. Kuhn began his testimony talking about himself. He spoke about growing up in Southern California, earning master's degrees and providing for his wife of 20 years and their five S6. He spoke about growing up in Southern California, earning master's degrees, and providing for his wife of twenty years and their five children. De said he joined the LAPD because he wanted to help people. Then he moved on to Rodney King in the events of March third, nineteen ninety one. 1991. His attorney played George holiday's video His attorney played George Holliday's video tape, the tape that seemed to incriminate him. Kony used it to make the case that he was not guilty of using excessive force. Using a wooden pointer, he broke down the video second by second. He pointed to moments when he said King was trying to get up and attack the officers. Koon sounded confident and coolly analytical. He relished the attention and his autobiography De claimed the TV audience more than doubled when he was on the stand. I directed them to hit I directed them to hit mister King and joints. I ordered them to hit his elbows, his wrist, his knees, and his S6. I ordered them to hit his gel blows, his wrist, his knees, and his ankles. Why did you do that? Because from my perception, the blows that it initially struck his arms and lay and towards S6. We're not having any effect at all. And when you say any effect at all, what were you trying to accomplish S6 Kent? I was trying to get mister King to submit you can pay in S6. And what made you believe that he had not complied? He gave me no indication either through facial or through any nonverbal that he was feeling any pain? John John Barnett, he was one of the best witnesses I've ever seen anytime, anywhere, he's in the S6 position. He's been characterized as leader of a bunch of thugs in uniform. And he was the best witness I've ever seen anywhere. For Cohen's cross examination the next day, Terry White S6 the floor to his co counsel, Alan S6, That part of Koon's testimony made all three network news S6 later that evening. Under cross examination, sergeant S6 Koon conceded that the beating S6 under his command gave Rodney King was the most violent use of force he had seen in his fourteen and a half years on the job. At the same time, he insisted that the use of force, some fifty six blows, was necessary. In watching the De take now? Is it your testimony that every one of the blows that you see on there is a justified use of force? It's a reasonable and necessary using the minimum force. yesterday. That is my is my testimony. Kung said he believed King was able to withstand the blows and the electric shocks from Koons Taser because he was high on S6. King never showed a trace of the drug in his system. The prosecution was arguing that no one deserved get beaten this brutally by the police no matter who they were. S6 Kuhn was saying the king wouldn't have complied otherwise. The king had been the aggressor that the officers had been the ones under attack. Let's take a quick break. Slow burn is brought to you by better S6 burn is brought to you by better help. It's something preventing you from achieving your something preventing you from achieving your goals. What interferes with your interferes with your happiness? Check out better help dot com slash slow burn. Better help will assess your needs. And match you with your own licensed professional therapists. Connect in a safe and private online Connect in a safe and private online environment. You can start communicating and under 48 hours send a message to your You can start communicating in under forty eight hours. Send a message to your counselor. Anytime you'll get timely and thoughtful responses, plus you can schedule weekly video or phone sessions all without ever having to sit in an uncomfortable waiting anytime. You'll get timely and thoughtful responses plus you can schedule weekly video or phone sessions, all without ever having to sit in an uncomfortable waiting room. I want you to start living a happier life today. As a listener, you'll get 10% off your first month by visiting our sponsor@betterhelp.com slash slow burn, join over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental a listener, you'll get ten percent off your first month by visiting our sponsor at betterhelp dot com slash slow burn. Join over one million people who have taken charge of their mental health. Again, that's better Again, that's better help. H E L p.com/slow HELP dot com slash slow burn. So far, a lot of things had gone well for the S6 far, a lot of things had gone well for the defense. They've gotten rare change of venue, and what seemed like an extremely sympathetic jury. They neutralize the prosecution's strongest S6, and the defendant with the highest profile had delivered a persuasive performance on the witness stand, but not everything broke their the four defendants, Lawrence Powell was the youngest and the most vulnerable. He led his division in arrest and had developed a reputation for being more cocky than competent. De had landed the most blows on king, and the prosecution had some damning evidence against him. They had shown the jury S6 messages he'd S6 on his patrol car's computer, and the messages in which he joked about the beating. And when it was his turn to testify, he was no stacie coone. Terry White, White. The thing about Lawrence Powell was he just had a lot of explaining to the the thing about S6 Powell was De just had a lot of explaining to do. And De didn't explain very well. On April first, Powell testified that he was following Stacey Coombs orders. De said of Koon, when he tells me to do things and they're in department policy and I feel they're reasonable, then by all means you do them or you're in trouble. Terry White pressed Powell about who was to blame if the beating got out of hand. Powell was evasive. For those tuning into the trial, it was a joke to watch them spar. And news reports, most correspondents who've been in the courtroom, led their stories with the clash between the two. Hypothetically speaking, if there was excessive force used out there that night, would sergeant Koon be responsible for that us a S6? S6 not a question that can be answered. That doesn't make sense. Not a question you want to answer, is it? And in one of the trials most combative exchanges, white S6 Powell about one of the computer S6. In an earlier incident, Powell had used the term guerrillas in the mist to describe black people. It was the first time race was directly addressed during trial. And the confrontation was later replayed on cable news. It was one thing to read their exchange in print, but quite another does see and hear it on TV. Even though he is a suspect and even though he is suspected of committing a crime, this this man is still a human being, isn't he? Yes, sir. De he deserves to be treated like a human being, didn't he? Yes, sir. Alright. He wasn't an animal, was he? No, sir. Just acting like one. De Jayson he was just acting like one. Yes, sir. Was he acting like a gorilla? No, sir. Terry White. White. Oh He was a horrible witness. He was horrible. He didn't do very good at all. Powell did a poor job defending his actions. But one of the other defendants, S6 Bracino, tried to separate himself from his colleagues entirely. During opening statements, it had become clear that there would be a break between S6 and the other officers. Lawyers for Koon Powell in Timothy Wind argued that everything those officers had done to King was reasonable and appropriate. S6 attorney John Barnett said that the beating had gotten out of hand and that his client had tried to stop it. My story was gonna be Ted S6 as has nothing much to do with S6, and you can make whatever decisions you want about the other officers For the the prosecution, this was an opportunity to play the officers against each other. When you have one defendant, S6 saying that the other defendants are guilty. That's that's favorable to the to the prosecution. It was clear that he was selling out the other three defendants. On the witness stand, Bracino said that he yelled at Powell to get the hell off king. And that he called on Koon to intervene. S6 testified that when the beating was over, he returned to his patrol car. His partner, a rookie who hadn't S6 in the beating was waiting there. S6 said he told them that the other officers had gone overboard. From his seat behind the defense, LA Times reporter S6 Serrano thought S6 testimony might have sealed the officers' fate. You could see the tension. Maybe power's gonna be configured, but I'm not. I'm trying to S6 my skin, but I'm not gonna roll on this guy and like you saw that that that blue wall crumbling right there in the courthouse. Closing arguments in the trial of the four LAPD officers started Monday, April twentieth. Terry White ended his case where he'd started almost two months earlier with George holiday's videotape. In a three and a half hour presentation, White played the S6 several times and referred to more than a dozen charts and diagrams. He reminded the jurors of the injuries King suffered at the hands, feet, and batons of the LAPD. White was beamed into millions of homes across the country on the National News. Prosecutor. Terry White told the jurors that the entire case comes down to one S6 Terry White told the jurors that the entire case comes down to one S6, do they believe their own eyes? This was a man in S6 was a man in pain. You can clearly see that on the video and yet they continue to strike them again and again and again and as point, you have to look at that video and say enough is enough. The next day, Lawrence Powell's attorney Mike Stone had his opportunity to address the jury. During final arguments, lawyers on both sides erupted repeatedly with anger. These officers, these defendants S6 not get paid to lose street fights. They don't get paid to roll around in the dirt with the likes of Rodney Glenn King. Stone asked the jury to sympathize, not with the man being beaten, but with the officers doing the beating. He said We leave it to them to take care of the mean streets so that we can safely enjoy our lives, so that we can raise our families in neighborhoods. 1 writer called Stone's argument, a masterful appeal to the prejudices of the white suburban S6 Valley jury. John Barnett made a different case. He told the jury that his client had been ostracized for taking a stand against his colleagues. De said Bracino, stood and stands alone against the power of the state. Barnett told me he figured at least one officer would be found guilty. If the jury believed that S6 had tried and failed to stop the beating, the other officers would be convicted. If they didn't believe him, they'd be likely to find him guilty too. It was hard to see how they could all be acquitted. I was very hopeful that Ted would be found not guilty because I thought really was not guilty. Now the jury would Now the jury would S6. And despite the change of venue, the favorable jury and the diminished impact of the tape It still seemed like the prosecution would prevail. Can can you take me back to the morning of April twenty ninth? When do you remember where you were when you found out that the jury had reached divertic? I know I was in the courthouse. I I think we got towed and the jury reached a verdict before noon. And then the judge wanted to meet with us in chambers prior to the verdict being read. The trial had run for fifty five days, and the jury had been deliberating for seven. Everyone in the courtroom had seen George Holliday's De tape from every possible angle. Terry White says that when Judge Stanley Weisberg called the attorneys to his chambers, it was clear which way the judge thought the trial had gone. De tells the S6, your clients are going in custody because, you know, normally when someone is found guilty, The only question is, are you gonna be remanded into custody now or not? And he was telling them, you're gonna be remanded into S6. In that moment, White felt certain that the officers who'd beaten Rotten King were going to be convicted. Let's take a quick break. If you're listening to this show, then you're probably a fan of unique and interesting stories. I wanna tell you about pocket. Pocket is a website and app that finds the most interesting, thought provoking, and entertaining articles from trusted sources around the Internet and puts them all in one place. Low on time, pocket lets you save articles, as well as anything else you find online like videos, recipes, and shopping pages to your personal pocket for digging into later. Pocket will even read the stories you saved aloud to you, like a podcast of back to back articles. Wanna go deep on a topic? They have some incredible curated collections that are hand selected by pocket editors or an expert pocket partner like De. Wanna learn more about what we discussed on season six of slow burn, go to pocket dot com S6 slate and check out slow burn to see my collection. On the afternoon of April twenty ninth, Rick Serrano was reading a book in the driver's seat of his yellow Mustang convertible. I was just sitting there and thinking that this could go to the hung jury, and some another reporter came up and S6, they've got a verdict. Serrano hustle back to the S6 hustled back to the courtroom. It was so crowded that people were turned away and had to wait outside. The jurors filed in, betraying no emotion on their S6. I just remembered the judge looking at the verdict forms before he hands it to the clerk because the judge normally will look at the verdict forms. And I remember the look on his face told De, this may not be good. Because I I remember he he looked stunned when he when he looked at the verdict forums. My S6 judge Stanley Weisberg on the bench, let's cut to the courtroom right now. Read a jury in the above entitled Action, find the defendant Lawrence m Powell, not guilty of the crime of S6. You know, I was I was stunned. Like everyone else was, it was S6 stunning. It was was surreal. The jurors had acquitted the four officers on all but one count. They deadlocked on a single excessive force charge against Lawrence Powell. Judge S6 declared a mistrial on that count. The officers turned to hug their attorneys, while their family members burst into tears behind them. John Barnett, I put my hand on Ted's shoulder, you know, like you would, your kit. You know, when something very important is gonna happen, you know, it's a it's a instinctive reaction. And there's relief The officers were among the few people at the courthouse in the mood to celebrate in the parking lot outside anger was building reaction to the verdict, started to play out on local TV, just like the trial officers were among the few people at the courthouse in the mood to celebrate. In the parking lot outside, anger was building. Reaction to the verdict started to play out on local TV, just like the trial. Outside the courthouse, angry demonstrators gathered to protest AND SOME Taunted THE FORMER S6 AS THEY LEFT TO GO HOME AND CELEBRATE. S6 was quickly hustled out to a waiting car and was escorted by Ventura County Sheriff's deputies. S6 Kuhn was surrounded by protesters as he and his lawyer made their way through the parking lot. Tim Nguyen made a quick exit from a side door and had nothing to say to reporters. Across Southern S6 Southern California, thousands of people took to the streets and protest. Minutes after the trial was over, more than three hundred demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse. Angry crowds also started gathering in South Central LA. And near the lakeview terrace site where Rodney King had been beaten. This was a modern day mansion. Auty's brother's here. Everybody in the whole community has experienced and witnessed a total injustice today, and we're not going forward. We're not going forward. King had been watching at his home in studio been watching at his home in Studio City. He wrote in his autobiography that when he heard the verdict, his shock and rage was so overwhelming, that I just wanted to close my eyes and open them as another S6, someplace a thousand miles away. King civil attorney Steve Lerman had gone to the trial every day. After the verdicts, he issued a warning to the city of Los Angeles. It's a good time, folks. If you got a plane ticket, cash it in and get the heck out of Dodge. This is gonna be a bad place to live. Terry White trudged outside the courtroom to face the media. You know, you have to be composed because you don't wanna say anything and it's gonna be inappropriate. Well, I'm not gonna S6 I don't want to imply that this is a miscarriage of I don't wanna imply that this is a miscarriage of justice. This is the way our system works. You present the evidence to a impartial tryer effect, and that tryer effect comes to a verdict, and sometimes you disagree with a verdict, but that's the way the system works. I asked him how it felt to have to S6 stoic in that moment. I mean, what am what am I gonna do? Am I gonna go out and say, oh, this jury's wrong, and this jury's horrible and this jury's terrible. No. I'm not gonna do that. The way that you that you work with jury trials is you have to respect their decision. Even if you disagree with it, you have to respect it. Why do you have S6. it? I mean, cause it's not uncommon for somebody to say this is a miscarriage of justice or so on and so mean, because it's not uncommon for somebody to say this is a miscarriage of justice or so on and so forth. Why did you think that the jury's decision was worth respecting? I am a prosecutor. I am a trial attorney. Ultimately, the jury makes the decision. De present our S6. The defense presents their case. Ultimately, the jury makes a decision. I am not gonna stand up there. And disrespect the system. Terry White may not have been willing to go that far, but plenty of people were. As Los Angeles and the nation would soon find out. Next week on slow burn. LA catches fire. And they said them cops. Them cops got off and my stomach man just like, I was stunned. The streets took over, you know, for three to five days, you know what I'm streets took over, you know, for three to five you know what I'm saying? A a straight fucking anarchy. You know what I'm saying? Just pure, S6. Slow burn is a production of S6 is a production of slate. Plus Slate's membership S6 plus. Sloitte's membership program. You can sign up for slate plus to hear a bonus episode of the can sign up for Select Plus to hear a bonus episode of the show. And in this week's bonus episode, you'll be hearing from Russell Cole, one of the S6 attorneys. Head over to S6 dot com slash slow burn to sign up, and listen. Now it's only a dollar for your first now. It's only a dollar for your first month. We couldn't make slow burn without the support of S6 plus. So please, sign up. If you can head over to slate.com/slow burn, up if you can. Head over to slate dot com slash slow burn. S6 burn is produced by Jason daily home, Ethan Brooks, Sophie Summergrad, Jasmine S6, and me, Joel Anderson. Editorial direction by Josh Levine and Gabriel Roth. Artwork is by Jim Cook. Our theme music was composed by Don Will. S6 by Mary Jacob. S6 of the audio you heard in this week's episode comes from the Department of Special Research Collections at the UC S6 of Barber Live Mary. Thanks to their team. Also, thanks to Rick Serrano, whose new book Berry Truths and the Hyatt sidewalks. The legacy of America's epic structural failure is out now and available anywhere you purchase books S6, the S6 of America's S6 Truck cruel failure is out now and available anywhere you purchase books. Special thanks to voice tracks West, Luke Cannon, Jackson Fander Beckett, Mark Steinberg, S6 Miss Rocky, Jared Hope, Lowe and Lou, Janade Desmond Harris, Amber Smith, Bill Carey, Meredith Iran, Seth Brown, Rachel Straum, Channel two, Derek Johnson, Asha Salusia, and Katie Rafford. Thank for listening. If you're listening to this show, then you're probably a fan of unique and interesting stories. I wanna tell you about Pocket. Pocket is a website and app that finds the most interest thing thought provoking and entertaining articles from trusted sources around the internet and puts them all in one place. Low on time? Pocket S6 you save articles, as well as anything else you find online like videos, recipes, and shopping pages. To your personal pocket for digging into later. Pocket will even read stories you've saved aloud to you, like a podcast of back to back articles. Wanna go deep on a topic? They also have some incredible curated collections that are hand selected by pocket editors or an expert pocket partner like De. Wanna learn more about what we discussed in today's S6? Go to pocket dot com S6 sleep and check out S6 to see my collection of articles that dig deep into everything we talked about.