NEW ORLEANS – Opening
statements began Wednesday in the retrial of a former New Orleans policeman who
shot and killed a man four days after Hurricane Katrina.
David
Warren is charged with violating 31-year-old Henry Glover's civil rights and
using a weapon in a violent crime.
Warren
was guarding a police substation from a second-floor balcony when he shot
Glover in 2005. He previously testified that he thought Glover had a gun. He
was convicted of manslaughter in 2010, but a federal appeals court overturned
the conviction.
The
court ruled he should have been tried separately from officers charged in a
cover-up designed to make Glover's shooting appear justified.
In
opening statements Wednesday, jurors heard two very different accounts of
Glover's death four days after Hurricane Katrina plunged the city into chaos.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Jared Fishman argued that Warren believed looters were
"animals who deserved to be shot" — and that he used his personal
rifle equipped with a high-powered scope to shoot a man who was running away
from him.
Defense
attorney Julian Murray countered that Warren was an honorable man who believed
Glover had a weapon and believed his own life was in danger.
Warren
was serving a prison sentence of nearly 26 years when the appeals court
overturned a 2010 manslaughter conviction.
During
jury selection for the retrial, Africk emphasized that Warren's case is
unrelated to other federal cases, including those alleging police misconduct.
He specifically mentioned deadly police shootings on New Orleans' Danziger
bridge after Hurricane Katrina.
Warren's
attorneys argued in October that some prospective jurors mistakenly believed he
was involved in that case.
Warren
was among 20 officers charged in a series of federal investigations of alleged
police misconduct in New Orleans. Five pleaded guilty; three were acquitted;
four convictions were upheld; seven await retrials after their convictions were
overturned; and another trial ended in a mistrial because of a prosecutor's
remarks.
In 2011,
the Justice Department issued a scathing report alleging a pattern of
discriminatory and unconstitutional conduct by police. The city and the Justice
Department reached an agreement calling for sweeping changes in police policy,
though the city has since objected to the potentially expensive agreement.
