Wednesday on Fox New Channel’s “Shepard Smith Reporting,” while discussing the South Carolina case of officer Michael Slager, who was caught on video shooting to death Walter Scott, host Shepard Smith said an officer of the law who is given a firearm to protect citizens must be held to the highest standards and the death penalty should definitely be a possible outcome.
After his guest, Judge Andrew Napolitano, detailed the first degree murder charge against Slager, Smith said, “The guy is running from you, having done nothing violent of any kind that anyone has spoken of, and he shoots him five times in the back.”
He continued, saying a guest on Fox News said earlier today he thought there should be no death penalty because it’s a cop, to which Smith said, “Well, I’m telling you, if the people give you a weapon in exchange for your protection and your service, and you take that weapon, and if the video proves to be right and a jury of his peers finds him guilty, you murder somebody with that weapon, While there to serve me I feel like you have a higher standard to uphold then than just running around willy-nilly. You are an officer of the law, an employee of the people. And If you just murdered one, you get what you get.”
Judge Napolitano added, “The attitude about the death penalty in South Carolina is the opposite of the attitude in Massachusetts, and the prosecutors indicated preliminarily, now, just charged last night, that they will seek the death penalty. If he’s executed, I can’t you the last time law enforcement was executed for murder.”
Smith added, “Nor can I and I looked.”
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