Skagen V Richardson Trial Summary

Summary

John Skagen, a white cop who was an off-duty police officer stops a black man named James Richardson and orders him against the wall. A shoot out occurs, and James Richardson attempts to escape from the scene. Skagen was soon fatally wounded by two officers who arrive at the scene.

James Richardson is to be charged for the murder of Skagen. Assistant district attorney Steven Philips is assigned to the case. What made this a difficult case was the confusing testimony, lack of evidence, and the missing gun. But they weren’t sure if the conviction was going to be possible due to these obstacles.

Steven Philips tried to put together the best case possible and present it before a judge and jury. Obstacles were going to be faced as they

1974.

The trial was long and was delayed numerous times due to Kunstler’s busy schedule with other demanding trial cases. The delays were also part of Kunstler’s defense strategy. There was plenty of evidence shown throughout the trial among which was the ballistics test. These tests showed that the five shots that Skagen endured but only two were from Richardson’s gun.

In the end Richardson was convicted with three of the original seven charges. Second degree manslaughter, felony charge (weapon based charge), and in the third-degree possession of a stolen property. The judge sentenced Richardson to a term no more than ten years for the conviction of manslaughter in the second degree. No more than seven years for the conviction of felony possession of a weapon. The criminal possession of stolen property was discharged, and the sentences were to be served all at the same time.

The book is relevant with todays issues as well. One of those issues being racism. Especially between minorities and as well the police. Is also talks about the stress being a cop, the role of a prosecutor, and the inner workings of the American judicial

It goes against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated but only upon probable cause. Skagen didn’t have probably cause to even have the right to search and try to seize whatever Richardson had. Skagen was considered off duty and felt that Richardson was hiding something.

The evidence that was found in the court was nothing associated with the four criteria’s. Richardson’s clothing made it hard to even find any probable cause or reasonable suspicion to have searched him. During the time of the shoot out due to this search of Richardson, they had found out that one of the officer had shot all rounds of his gun and could have injured everyone in the train station. Due to these bullets on June 27, 1972 Skagen dies.

Throughout this book, I feel that the author had given a perfect outline as well as the story behind it. He described the characters well. Wish I knew more about Skagen and his background. To see why he had made the decision that he did. But other than that, he explained the characters well. My opinion on the search of Richardson, it had to do with race. Not only were there no visible weapons that Skagen but there was no reason for the search that had taken