'Mr. Grant,' not 'the victim'

[The Straight Story]

'Mr. Grant,' not 'the victim'

As prosecutors and the defense prepare for Johannes Mehserle's upcoming murder trial, they're jockeying for position with legal filings intended to keep jurors from being influenced in subtle ways.

Defense attorneys for the former BART police officer, accused of murdering unarmed train rider Oscar Grant on Jan. 1, 2009, want the judge to direct that the slain man be referred to as "Mr. Grant" during the trial -- rather than "the victim."

They also want Mehserle to be called "Officer Mehserle" rather than "the defendant."

John Burris, an attorney for Grant's family, said he had no problem with the "Mr. Grant" request. But "Officer Mehserle" would be inaccurate, he said, noting that Mehserle quit the BART force six days after the fatal shooting and is no longer an officer.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, are asking the judge to bar the introduction of what they call irrelevant and prejudicial evidence involving Grant. That includes any mention that Grant was a parolee -- he was sentenced to 16 months in state prison in 2007 after fleeing from a traffic stop while armed with a loaded pistol -- that he had the name of his Hayward neighborhood tattooed on his back, and that he had a medical marijuana card in his wallet when he was shot.

Mehserle's attorneys have said the former officer meant to stun Grant with his Taser on the platform at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland but pulled his pistol by mistake. They are seeking, over the objections of prosecutors, to have a use-of-force expert describe other cases from around the country in which officers reported mistaking their guns for Tasers.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/crime/detail?entry_id=62514&tsp=1#ixzz0mg89MzQJ

[my2sense]

1. Unbelievable

This is some straight up BS. It seems brown folks can't ever be considered victims.......kind of like terrorist are only brown and others are criminals or angry citizens.......(Joe Stack).