– The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – A white former transit officer was sentenced to the minimum possible prison sentence of two years Friday for fatally shooting an unarmed black man on a California train platform, angering the victim’s family and friends, who demanded a much harsher punishment.
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The case against defendant Johannes Mehserle has provoked racial unrest at every turn, and police in Oakland, the scene of the killing, were on alert for more problems following a sentence that many thought was too light.
Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant, shouted, “Oh my!” when Superior Court Judge Robert Perry issued the two-year sentence. She burst out of the courtroom saying, “He got nothing! He got nothing!”
Grant’s uncle, Bobby Cephus Johnson, said outside court: “I do believe it’s a racist criminal justice system.”
Still, he said the family was reacting calmly but added he could not comment for others.
“I have no power over what people feel their matter of expression should be,” he said.
Some of the dozens of people who gathered outside Oakland City Hall for a tribute to victim Oscar Grant broke into tears when they learned of the judge’s decision. Outside the Los Angeles courthouse, a small crowd that had earlier shouted “No justice, no peace” reacted relatively calmly to the sentence.
Mehserle, 28, had faced a possible 14-year maximum term after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter. At the time of the shooting, Mehserle was a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer responding to a report of a fight.
In making his decision during the highly charged, 3½-hour hearing, Judge Perry threw out a gun enhancement that could have added as much as 10 years in prison and said there was overwhelming evidence that it was an accidental shooting.
Perry said race would not factor into his decision and although Mehserle had shown “tons of remorse” for killing Grant, he would have to account that a “young man needlessly died.”
“I did the best I could with this case,” Perry told the courtroom. “My decisions today will not be well-received by many people. I’m sorry for that.”
Police said they were prepared in case there was a replay of the rioting in Oakland that followed the shooting on New Year’s Day 2009.
Mayor Ron Dellums said he understood the pain and disappointment sparked by the sentence.
“It is still my hope that people will express their (feelings) in a manner that is nonviolent, in a manner that is not destructive to our community,” he said.
Johnson family attorney John Burris acknowledged a small step was taken by the justice system in sentencing Mehserle to two years, but he said that was insufficient. Both Burris and Bobby Johnson noted that NFL star Michael Vick got a harsher sentence for running a dog-fighting ring.
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