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January 22, 2025
Prez Trump pardons two DC police officers convicted for deadly chase and coverup
Prez Trump is not yet tired of using his clemency pen, as this new New York Times piece reports: "President Trump on Wednesday issued full and unconditional pardons to two Washington, D.C., police officers convicted after a chase that killed a young Black man in 2020, an episode that led to days of protests and clashes in the nation’s capital." Here is more:
Mr. Trump granted clemency to Officer Terence Sutton of the Metropolitan Police Department, who was sentenced last year to more than five years in prison for second-degree murder and obstruction of justice in the unauthorized pursuit, which killed the man, 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown. Officer Sutton was the first D.C. police officer to be convicted of murder for actions on duty.
The other pardon recipient, Lt. Andrew Zabavsky, was sentenced to four years in prison not directly for the killing of Mr. Hylton-Brown, but for conspiring with Mr. Sutton to cover up the deadly police chase. The two had been free pending the outcome of their appeals.
January 22, 2025 at 11:55 PM | Permalink
Comments
It’s becoming increasingly clear that DJT's current philosophy is that, if any official decision angers Democrats (or anyone he considers left of center), it is by definition good policy. These pardons were issued not to remedy any injustice, but to intentionally sow racial division. Nicely done.
Posted by: Da Man | Jan 23, 2025 9:43:33 AM
Unlike the prosecution of "the white man", i.e., Daniel Penny.
Posted by: federalist | Jan 23, 2025 5:49:15 PM
Federalist - yes. That was so unfair. I bet if there’s someone in prison for Clean Water Act violations for dumping crude oil in the ocean, DJT would pardon that person, too, under the same principle.
Posted by: Da Man | Jan 23, 2025 9:53:44 PM
Never mind - he pardoned people convicted under FACE. Same thing
Posted by: Da Man | Jan 24, 2025 5:58:10 AM
Second-degree murder seems a stretch for a cop chase when the guy could have just pulled over. Why would you charge that?
Posted by: federalist | Jan 24, 2025 1:08:43 PM
Federalist's theory of responsibility and notions of qualified immunity are so warped that if a motorist sped off in the middle of a traffic stop, and the cop, instead of initiating a chase went home and shot his girlfriend for cheating on him, he'd want the *motorist* charged with her murder.
Why? Because the motorist had a responsibility to sit there until the lawful traffic stop was concluded, and ALL consequences of his unlawful conduct are assignable to him.
On the bright side, if while in prison the motorist's case got overturned, he'd have a right to kill any prison guard who tried to beat him up.
Posted by: Frank Fosdick | Jan 24, 2025 7:31:36 PM
FF, there is, you know, this whole "proximate cause" thingy. Cop initiates a chase--dude could simply pull over. If he crashes, that's on him.
As for SD in prisons, if a guard uses unlawful force, a prisoner has every right to defend himself, and he gets to use deadly force if that unlawful force puts him in reasonable fear of SBI or death. I believe even Doug would agree with me there.
Posted by: federalist | Jan 27, 2025 10:17:02 AM
Federalist,
Murder is ridiculous, but involuntary manslaughter isn’t. The chase was against department policy and chasing a guy for not wearing a helmet is not reasonable. Even other officers didn’t believe it was, and “What would a reasonable officer do?,” is always the legal question with QI and such incidents.
The ex post facto excuse of, “He had been in an argument earlier in the day and I thought he might be coming back to commit violence,” doesn’t pass the legal nor sniff test. There was no reasonable articulable suspicion, thus no legal Terry stop.
The guy is a dirty cop. Again, we agree that murder is an over the top charge.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jan 27, 2025 4:08:49 PM
tarls, you still have a pretty hard proximate cause issue . . . .
Posted by: federalist | Jan 28, 2025 9:16:34 AM