The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday overturned a ruling that granted immunity to three former sheriff’s deputies who had been indicted on murder charges in the death of an unarmed and mentally ill Black man who was repeatedly shot with a Taser along a rural road in 2017.
The confrontation between the three Washington County sheriff’s deputies and the man, Eurie Lee Martin, 58, was captured on a dashboard camera.
Justice Charles J. Bethel wrote the opinion in the court’s unanimous decision overturning the immunity granted by a Washington County judge shortly before the three deputies were to stand trial. The deputies — Henry Lee Copeland, Michael Howell and Rhett Scott — were fired for violating department procedures by repeatedly tasing Mr. Martin and not rendering first aid as he lay unconscious.
Mr. Martin died of asphyxiation at the scene, according to a lawyer for his family.
The deputies were indicted in Washington County in August 2018 on charges of felony murder, involuntary manslaughter, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless conduct, but were given immunity by a judge citing a law granting officers immunity if they were acting in self-defense in making a lawful arrest. The State Supreme Court’s decision, which sends the case back to the trial court, means the three will most likely face those charges again.
Lawyers representing the former deputies did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did the prosecutor in the case.
On July 7, 2017, Mr. Martin left his home in Milledgeville and was walking along Deepstep Road to Sandersville, a journey of about 25 miles, to attend a friend’s birthday party, according to Francys Johnson, a lawyer representing the Martin family. Mr. Martin suffered from mental illness, Mr. Johnson said in an interview, adding that Mr. Martin distrusted automobiles and preferred to walk wherever he needed to go, even in the 100-plus-degree heat that day.
Court documents say that Mr. Martin stopped at a home along the way and asked a man working in the front yard if he could have some water to fill a cut-off soda can he was carrying. The man refused and called 911 after Mr. Martin walked away.
Soon after, Deputy Howell found Mr. Martin walking along the side of the two-lane road, outside the painted lines, and asked if he was OK. Mr. Martin ignored the deputy and continued walking, so Deputy Howell began following him in his squad car, radioed for backup and turned on his car’s blue lights.
Within three minutes, Deputy Copeland approached in his squad car from the opposite direction and blocked Mr. Martin’s path. Mr. Martin crossed the road to avoid the deputies and ignored their requests to talk with them.
According to the State Supreme Court’s decision, Mr. Martin had broken no laws and was not obligated to comply with the deputies’ orders at the time. Shortly after he crossed the road, two of the deputies repeatedly shot Mr. Martin with a Taser, with at least 15 recorded applications of electricity during a span of 4 minutes 17 seconds, and called in Deputy Scott for additional backup.
The three officers pinned Mr. Martin to the ground and handcuffed him, leaving him face down. Mr. Johnson said Mr. Martin begged for his life and suffocated before paramedics arrived, with the sequence of events captured on video by a dashboard camera.
Mr. Johnson, who said he had been an advocate for the families of 17 people killed by law enforcement officers in Georgia since 2008, said that this was one of the first instances he was aware of when white law enforcement officers in Georgia might reach trial on charges of killing a Black man.
The only other example he could provide was the case of Jacob G. Thompson, a white Georgia state trooper, who is facing murder charges in the death of Julian Edward Roosevelt Lewis of Sylvania, Ga., in August. Mr. Thompson, who was fired, is being held without bond. Mr. Johnson represents the Lewis family as well.
“There are not many examples of white officers being held accountable for malfeasance and criminal conduct where the victim is Black or brown,” Mr. Johnson said. “What is typical is that there are excuses made. Any reason is enough and justification for the taking of a Black life.”
“And it is absolutely amazing to see a different narrative be written,” he added, “not in some urban progressive area, but in rural Georgia.”
Monday’s Georgia Supreme Court ruling was unusual, Mr. Johnson said, in that it rejected the former deputies’ claims of immunity from prosecution and allows them to once again face charges in Mr. Martin’s death.
In his opinion for the court, Justice Bethel wrote, “We determine that, in granting immunity, the trial court made findings of material fact that were inconsistent with its legal conclusions regarding the deputies’ encounter with Martin, conflated principles regarding the reasonable use of force by law enforcement with self-defense and immunity, made unclear findings of material fact with respect to whether any or all of the deputies used force intended or likely to cause death, and did not address the facts pertinent to each of the three deputies individually.”
He continued, “For these reasons, we vacate the trial court’s ruling and remand the cases for further consideration consistent with this opinion.”
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