Mistrial Allows South Carolina Police Chief to Get Murder Charge DroppedAmanda Warren Any hopeful expectations of justice came crashing down, however, when on Tuesday morning a hung jury prompted the judge to declare a mistrial. Bernard Bailey had come to his daughters assistance when now ex-police chief Richard Combs pulled her over for a broken tail light in 2011. Unbeknownst to Bailey, Combs had taken out an arrest warrant on Bailey for obstruction of justice. He sat on it for seven weeks until. Bailey was atEutawville Town Hall for his daughters court appearance regarding the tail light. This is when,according to Combs, he announced he had a warrant and was going to arrest Bailey, and when Bailey began to walk toward his pickup truck in the Town Hall parking lot, which is also outside the police station. The scene quickly escalated to the ultimate death of Bailey Combs shot him three times while Bailey remained in the driver seat of his truck. Combs was standing in front of the truck door, claiming that the vehicle was moving and he feared for his life. Defense argued that it was the three seconds during the killing and Combs fear for his life that mattered most in the trial, not anything leading up to that point or afterward. A passionate argument, however, comes from the Prosecution side with attorney David Pascoe who said: At first jurors had a choice of a murder charge (30-year sentence, no parole), voluntary manslaughter (2-30 years), or acquittal But on Monday, Judge Dickson authorized the voluntary manslaughter charge. After hours and hours of deliberation, the jury decided a guilty verdict 9-3. Never reaching full agreement, a mistrial was called. If Bailey was truly this menacing obstructer of justice, the police chief of all people, had all the authority in the world to arrest him on the spot. He didnt arrest Bailey on the spot, instead, he waited until Baileys daughters court appearance to make great dramatic show of it. That is willful intent. At the very least intent to create a confrontation where a psychopathic cold blooded killer can then use a badge and a weapon to finish off an unarmed man sitting in a truck. It is entirely plausible that Combs had it the back of his mind, the entire time, to show Bailey whos boss for whatever perceived challenge to authority he saw in Bailey. While many in the alternative media have been criticizing the judge for calling a mistrial, the true guilt lies with the three members of the jury who let a killer go, when a clear case not only exists for voluntary manslaughter, but a case also exists for murder. At the end of the day, nine people saw it for what it was murder. But three people actually voted with their consciences despite the evidence because they could not get past the authoritative, shiny badge. A similar mistrial took place in May 2014 where an officer clearly used the pepper spray point blank into a womans eye with such constant force that the stream cut through her eye into her skull. Her eye was destroyed into pieces and she was left permanently blind with skull fracturing. One can only hope that prosecution on Baileys behalf makes it to a round two, as they plan, and that this time justice is served. Its really time to reach out to people who might one day serve on such juries and remind them that onsite executions of unarmed people are never acceptable to a free and peaceful society. Sources: 