No Trial Delay for Cop Who Killed 7-Year-Old Aiyana Stanley-Jones During Raid
A request to delay the trial of a Detroit police officer who killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones
during a raid has been turned down by a judge, AP reports.
Officer Joseph Weekley’s lawyer Steven Fishman reportedly said that “the media frenzy” following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, could potentially spoil the jury. But Wayne County Judge Cynthia Hathaway denied the request to postpone until 2015, keeping the trial start date for next Monday.
Weekley, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter, claims that he accidentally fired his submachine gun after Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones, grabbed the weapon during the 2010 raid. Yet both Jones and another officer who testified have denied any struggle over the gun.
Aiyana’s family believes that the officers involved in the raid were most concerned about how they would look on television because the raid was being filmed for the A&E reality show First 48.
Weekley’s first trial ended without a verdict last year.
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(Photo: AP Photo/Family Photo via The Detroit News)