Prosecutors drop calls for killer Minneapolis cop Kim Potter to be given longer-than-usual sentence


Minnesota prosecutors are dropping calls for killer cop Kim Potter, who is white, to be given a longer-than-usual sentence for killing a black man during a traffic stop, and now say they’re happy with the suggested seven-year prison stretch instead.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors said they were fine with existing state guidelines suggesting Potter, 49, serve around seven years for the April 2021 manslaughter of Daunte Wright. She’ll be sentenced on Friday. 

‘The presumptive sentence takes into account the main elements of the conviction: the death of Daunte Wright and Defendant’s recklessness,’ prosecutor Matt Frank wrote in the court filing. 

Potter’s attorneys had asked for less-than-usual sentencing, including a request that would have seen Potter serve no jail time and only probation. 

Minnesota state law permits a sentence of up to 15 years for manslaughter, although district attorneys hadn’t stipulated how much longer than the seven year advisory they’d hoped Potter would sentence.   

According to Minnesota state law, Potter will be sentenced based only on the most serious conviction, which in this case is first-degree manslaughter. 

Prosecutors announce the sentencing guidelines for Kim Potter, 49, pictured, who is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in the April 2021 shooting death of Daunte Wright

Prosecutors announce the sentencing guidelines for Kim Potter, 49, pictured, who is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in the April 2021 shooting death of Daunte Wright

Ex-cop Kim Potter smiles in her mugshot after being found guilty of the manslaughter of Daunte Wright

Daunte Wright

Potter (left) who photographed grinning in a new mug shot that was released after her conviction on manslaughter charges for the killing of Daunte Wright (pictured, right)

Pictured: Potter, a former Minnesota police officer, being found guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter on December 23, 2021

Pictured: Potter, a former Minnesota police officer, being found guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter on December 23, 2021

The ex-cop, pictured, claimed she accidentally killed Wright when she mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her taser

The ex-cop, pictured, claimed she accidentally killed Wright when she mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her taser

Sentencing guidelines in the state call for six to eight and a half years for the crime, with the presumptive sentence being just over seven years.

Judges can’t go above or below said guidelines unless they find a compelling reason to do so.

Meanwhile, a juror from the Potter trial said the panel believed the killer cop was a ‘good person who made a mistake’ and that the decision to convict came when they felt the difference between her gun and taser.

Potter, a former Brooklyn Center police officer, was convicted of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal April 11 shooting of Daunte Wright on December 23.

The ex-cop claimed she accidentally killed Wright when she mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her taser.

‘I don’t want to speak for all the jurors, but I think we believed she was a good person and even believed that she was a good cop,’ a juror, speaking on the basis of anonymity, told KARE. 

The ex-cop claimed she accidentally killed Wright when she mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her taser (Pictured: Bodycam footage of the shooting)

The ex-cop claimed she accidentally killed Wright when she mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her taser (Pictured: Bodycam footage of the shooting)

The jury reportedly had the opportunity to hold Potter's gun and taser in their hands, which was the 'turning point' for her guilty verdicts (Pictured: Potter's gun and taser side by side)

The jury reportedly had the opportunity to hold Potter’s gun and taser in their hands, which was the ‘turning point’ for her guilty verdicts (Pictured: Potter’s gun and taser side by side)

‘No one felt she was intentional in this. … We felt like she was a good person, we felt she made a mistake, and that a mistake does not absolve you from the fact she did commit a crime.’ 

However, the individual shared how the jury had the opportunity to hold Potter’s gun and taser in an effort to feel the differences between them. The gun was reportedly twice as heavy as the taser, as well as unholstered and fired differently. 

Though Potter showed no visible emotion in court as the verdicts were read, she was photographed grinning in a mugshot taken later as she was processed at a women’s prison near Minneapolis.

Potter, who is white, shot and killed the 20-year-old Wright, who was black, during an April 11 traffic stop in Brooklyn Center as she and other officers were trying to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for a weapons possession charge.

DailyMail.com exclusively reported last week that Wright had led a life of violence and crime in the years leading up to his death, which included his involvement in a shooting of two of his school friends, a home burglary, and an assault and robbery.

Daunte Wright is pictured above with his young son

Daunte Wright is pictured above with his young son

This still image taken from from police body cam video shows Daunte Wright being shot during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021

This still image taken from from police body cam video shows Daunte Wright being shot during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021

‘Daunte lived a lifestyle that didn’t have a long life span,’ said Jennifer LeMay, the mother of a 19-year-old boy who was left with a traumatic brain injury after Wright allegedly shot him in the head in 2019. ‘He was either going to be imprisoned, kill someone, or be killed. His actions and behavior were inexcusable on every level.’

Jurors saw video of the shooting from police body cameras and dashcams.

As Wright pulled away while another officer attempted to handcuff him, Potter repeatedly said she would tase him, but instead shot him once in his chest with her gun, which was in her hand.

‘(Expletive)! I just shot him. … I grabbed the wrong [expletive] gun,’ Potter said on video shown to the jury. Moments later, she said: ‘I’m going to go to prison.’

During her sometimes tearful testimony, Potter told jurors that she was ‘sorry it happened.’ She said the traffic stop ‘just went chaotic.’

In Potter’s case, they alleged that her actions were a danger to others, including her fellow officers, to Wright’s passenger and to the couple whose car was struck by Wright’s after the shooting.

They also alleged she abused her authority as a police officer.

Potter’s attorneys argued that she made a tragic mistake, but that she also would have been justified in using deadly force because of the possibility that Potter’s fellow officer, then-Sgt. Mychal Johnson, was at risk of being dragged if Wright had driven away from the traffic stop.

Potter testified that she decided to act after seeing a look of fear on Johnson’s face.

Wright’s killing came as Minneapolis PD faced scrutiny over its officers’ interactions with black suspects.

In May 2020, former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, sparking worldwide Black Lives Matter protests.

And earlier this month, another black man called Amir Locke was shot dead by the city’s police department as he grabbed for his legally-held gun while officers executed a no-knock warrant.  

The charges and penalties in the Kim Potter trial 

FIRST-DEGREE MANSLAUGHTER PREDICATED ON RECKLESS USE/HANDLING OF FIREARM AND SECOND-DEGREE MANSLAUGHTER: 

  • First-degree manslaughter in this case means prosecutors allege that Potter caused Wright’s death while committing a misdemeanor – the ‘reckless handling or use of a firearm so as to endanger the safety of another with such force and violence that death or great bodily harm to any person was reasonably foreseeable.’
  • The second-degree manslaughter charge alleges that she caused his death ‘by her culpable negligence,’ meaning that Potter ’caused an unreasonable risk and consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm’ to Wright, while using or possessing a firearm.
  • Neither charge requires prosecutors to prove Potter intended to kill Wright.

POTENTIAL PENALTIES:

  • The maximum for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years; for second-degree, it’s 10 years. But Minnesota judges follow sentencing guidelines that normally call for less – just over seven years for first-degree, and four years for second-degree.
  • Prosecutors have said they will seek a longer sentence due to aggravating factors, which is what they did in former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial for killing George Floyd.
  • The longest sentences that could conceivably stick on appeal are double the top of the guidelines range. But that’s more than the statutory maximum of 15 years for first-degree manslaughter, so 15 years would be the cap for Potter if she’s convicted. The realistic maximum on the lesser charge would be 9 1/2 years.
  • Presuming good behavior, Minnesota offenders typically serve two-thirds of their time in prison and one-third on supervised release.  

Source: AP 

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