As OakBook columnist Clinton Killian suggested would happen, the judge in the Mehserle trial tentatively decided Wednesday that jurors will be asked to choose between a verdict of second degree murder or manslaughter. There is not enough evidence to consider first degree murder charges.

This decision will anger people who wanted to see a maximum penalty imposed on the BART cop, who killed Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day, 2009. But the fact that the Alameda County District Attorney brought charges against Mehserle was an unusual departure from the norm.

In the 12 months before Mehserle killed Oscar Grant, law enforcement officers in California killed 102 people. Authorities deemed the incidents justifiable homicides. A recent report from the Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office sheds light on who is shot and killed by police in California.
 

The vast majority of people killed by law enforcement in 2008 were men. The number of justifiable homicides by private citizens in 2008 was 27.

Latinos were killed in nearly half of all 2008's justifiable homicides by law enforcement

Peace officers killed six people under the age of 18

The majority of justifiable homicides happened on the street

One out of five people killed by law enforcement were in circumstances other than the commission of a crime or attacking an officer.