Jurors set to return for 5th day in police shooting retrial

CINCINNATI (AP) — Jury deliberations in Ohio’s second murder trial of a white former police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist have gone on longer than in his first trial that ended with a hung jury.

Jurors in former University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing’s retrial resume deliberations Friday, their fifth day. They’ve deliberated nearly 26 hours, compared to 25 hours over four days in the November mistrial.

The Hamilton County court administrator says the jury asked a question Thursday, and Judge Leslie Ghiz (giz) sent an answer after meeting with attorneys in her chambers. The question wasn’t made public.

The 27-year-old Tensing also is charged with voluntary manslaughter in the July 2015 shooting of 43-year-old Sam DuBose. Tensing said he feared for his life when DuBose tried to drive away from a traffic stop over a missing front license plate.

Prosecutors say his body-camera video and other evidence doesn’t support his decision to shoot DuBose in the head at close range.

The case is among several across the country in recent years that have raised attention to how police deal with blacks. It’s also among cases that show the difficulties prosecutors face in gaining convictions against police for on-duty shootings.

A jury last week acquitted a Minnesota officer who fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop. And jurors Wednesday acquitted a black police officer of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of a black Milwaukee man who threw away the gun he was carrying during a brief foot chase after a traffic stop.

Jurors in the Tensing case began deliberations Monday afternoon. They submitted a question Tuesday about the location of a piece of evidence. At the end of the day, they came into the courtroom where the judge praised their work and encouraged them to “hang in there.”

Ghiz continues to restrict media coverage. News organizations including The Associated Press have a pending lawsuit against her restrictions on the use of cellphones and other electronic devices.

If convicted of murder, Tensing faces a potential sentence of 15 years to life in prison; voluntary manslaughter carries a possible sentence of three to 11 years.