The afternoon session began with a continuation of testimony from Jackie Bryson and with my wondering what it’s like to be him: 23 years old, staying calm and composed despite badgering by defense attorney Michael Rains, having to remember and testify about the night when his close friend was killed.
OSCAR GRANT TRIAL
This is a very partial account of a small portion of the trial which I offer only because coverage has been so minimal in LA. I didn’t know this so I wasn’t part of the lottery, but there was some empty space in Judge Ronald Perry’s courtroom (Ninth floor, Room 309) at 1:30 on Tuesday, June 22 and I was allowed inside. At 7:45, there’s a drawing to see which members of the public get seats, either for the morning session beginning at 8:30 or the afternoon session at 1:30. To attend the trial, if you’re not a member of the Grant family or the Mehserle family or a credentialed representative of the media, you show up at Los Angeles Superior Court at 7:30 AM to get a lottery ticket from the Public Information Officer outside the building at 210 West Temple Street. Oh, and that Oscar Grant was black and Mehserle is white. Those seem to be the only facts everyone’s agreed on. Mehserle (who quit the force after the killing) is now on trial in Los Angeles, the first time in California history that a police officer has been charged with murder for a line-of-duty shooting. As we all know, early in the morning, New Years Day, 2009 on the Fruitdale transit platform in Oakland, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot an unarmed passenger, Oscar Grant, in the back, killing him.
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