LOS ANGELES : Powell Says King Jurors Took the ‘Easy Out’
LAPD Officer Laurence M. Powell says that federal jurors, fearing they might be “attacked by angry mobs if they acquitted us . . . buckled under to cowardice” when they convicted him and Sgt. Stacey C. Koon in the Rodney G. King civil rights case.
Speaking out for the first time since the verdicts were announced April 17, Powell says the jury took the “easy out” when it listened to the “politically correct” arguments of the prosecution and voted to convict.
“It is pretty scary to be judged by 12 (jurors who are) fearful of upsetting the loudmouths of the community and lacking integrity to listen to evidence that easily allows a finding of reasonable doubt,” Powell wrote in the June edition of the “Thin Blue Line,” the monthly publication of the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
Powell and Koon are scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 4. Prosecutors have recommended prison sentences of at least seven years for each of the officers.
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