The first incident prompted calls for the case to be dismissed because of language the defense and judge deemed racial.
Special prosecutor Patty Eakes in her closing arguments Tuesday had told jurors that the officers treated Ellis as “less than human” by continuing to apply force to his back after he repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe as he lay prone in the street and handcuffed with his wrists behind his back.
After jurors left the room, Mark Conrad, a lawyer for Officer Timothy Rankine objected to her statement, citing precedent-setting case law which holds that describing someone as an animal can prejudice juries against them. He said the underlying court case states that animal comparisons amount to coded racist language that historically has portrayed Black men unfairly as inclined toward criminal behavior.
