Why it's rare for police officers to be convicted of murder
CNN
As a Minnesota jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter charges, law enforcement experts note how rare it is that police officers involved in high-profile, and sometimes deadly, on-duty incidents ever face criminal charges or are convicted.
Experts point to several factors, which include laws that protect an officer's right to use force, advantages from powerful police unions, prosecutors who may face a conflict of interest, and even jury pools that tend to side with police. "It's rare because the juries are very reluctant to second guess and judge the actions of on-duty police officers in violent street encounters," said Philip Matthew Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University who spearheads a group that tracks data on police crimes.
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