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As legislation enforcement’s disparate use of power in opposition to Blacks continues to stoke division, the Texas Court docket of Felony Appeals plans to overview the high-profile homicide conviction of former police officer Roy Oliver, who fatally shot an unarmed Black teenager, the Texas Tribune reports. In 2018, Oliver, who’s white, was sentenced to fifteen years in jail for the 2017 Balch Springs taking pictures dying of Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old passenger in a automotive transferring away from officers. The jury’s choice was a landmark, as law enforcement officials are hardly ever indicted — and nearly by no means convicted of homicide — in on-duty shootings. Oliver has been in jail for greater than two years, and he’s not eligible for parole till 2026. He contends that the statements he made to inside affairs investigators had been wrongly used in opposition to him in his legal case.
The problem got here up repeatedly throughout Oliver’s trial. The trial decide and an appeals court docket each dominated that there was no proof any of the statements Oliver was required to offer to the police division for an inside investigation had been used in opposition to him as a legal defendant. Now, Texas’ highest legal court docket needs to have a look. On Wednesday, the judges took the uncommon step of granting a overview of Oliver’s case. The Court docket of Felony Appeals isn’t required to overview non-death penalty convictions, like Oliver’s case, and it hardly ever grants requests to take action.
