Dec 24, 2021: A jury in the United States has found Kimberly Potter, a former Minnesota police officer, guilty of double murder in the deadly shooting of black motorist Daunte Wright in April, which sparked widespread racially motivated protests.

Potter pleaded not guilty to first-degree and second-degree manslaughter charges in connection with the April 11 shooting of Wright, 20, during a traffic stop north of Minneapolis.

The 12 member jury on Thursday found Potter, 49, guilty of both charges. Prosecutors argued during the trial that Potter, a police veteran, “betrayed her badge” and mistakenly pulled out her firearm instead of her taser during the fatal incident to protest years of training.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, Wright’s family celebrated the verdict outside court. Wright was killed a few miles north of where Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was on trial for the murder of George Floyd, a black man who died during a 2020 arrest in U.S. cities. Protests consequently rocked the city calling against racism and police cruelty.

Chauvin was convicted of murder in April, and pleaded guilty this month to separate federal charges of Floyd’s civil rights violations. Potter, who was handcuffed on Thursday after Judge Regina Chu rejected his lawyer’s request to allow her to spend Christmas with her family, was sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in prison on the most serious charges and face up to 10 years in prison for the lesser one.

The legal team representing the Wright family, civil rights activist and lawyer Bejamin Crump. Antonio Romanucci and Jeff Storms said, “The family of Daunte Wright is relieved that the justice system has provided some measure of accountability for the senseless death of their son, brother, father and friend,”

Chu ordered Potter to be detained without bail, and to be sentenced on February 18.

“From the unnecessary and overreaching tragic traffic stop to the shooting that took his life, that day will remain a traumatic one for this family and yet another example for America of why we desperately need change in policing, training and protocols.”

Brandon Buskey, director of American Civil Liberties Union criminal law reform project said, “And real justice means that these situations do not happen in the first place, the ACLU will continue to fight alongside our allies throughout the country to reimagine a world where Black and other marginalized people like Daunte Wright are free to live a life without the fear of racialized violence.”

The basic facts about Wright’s murder, captured on camera wearing Potter’s body and the many nights of racial justice demonstrations in the Brooklyn Center community where it took place and in nearby Minneapolis, are largely obvious. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Potter had accidentally pulled the wrong weapon and never intended to kill Wright. The question was whether the jury would find its actions negligent in violating state genocide laws, or would lead the incident to a tragic mistake that does not guarantee criminal liability.

Potter was training a new officer when the duo pulled Wright over for having expired licence plate tags and an air freshener hanging from the car’s rearview mirror, according to the criminal complaint.

The officers moved to arrest Wright when they discovered he had an outstanding warrant. As he attempted to flee, body camera footage shows Potter yelling, “Taser, Taser, Taser” and “I’ll tase you” before she fired a single shot with her handgun.

Prosecutors mainly argued that Potter’s 26 years as a police officer, should have lent a level of experience they said made her mistake indefensible.

The prosecution team said she went against her training, which included Taser-specific courses in the months before the shooting, and took a conscious and unreasonable risk in using any weapon against the unarmed Wright.

On the other hand, Potter’s lawyers set out to show Wright was resisting arrest thereby creating a dangerous situation and justified her use of force. While acknowledging her mistake, they said her actions were not criminal because she thought she was using her Taser and was unaware she had drawn her handgun.

To build their case, the defense called on Laurence Miller, a psychologist who testified about “action error”, or when a person takes one action while intending to do another. Miller said such mistakes were common and can be triggered by stress.

For the first degree manslaughter charge, prosecutors were required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Potter caused Wright’s death while committing the misdemeanour offence of recklessly using a firearm, according to Minnesota law.

For second-degree manslaughter, the jury was required to find Potter was guilty of “culpable negligence”, meaning she created an “unreasonable risk and consciously” took a chance of causing Wright death or serious bodily harm.

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