Key decisions in the Ray Tensing retrial

The jury deadlocked a second time in the case of Ray Tensing, a white former Ohio police officer involved in the fatal traffic stop shooting of black motorist Sam DuBose.

Here are some of the key points that led to that decision:

• Judge Megan Shanahan, who presided over the first trial, disqualified herself from presiding over the retrial saying the retrial needed a clean slate. After two other judges, Beth Myers and Thomas Heekin, recused themselves, Leslie Ghiz was selected. 
• Prosecutor Joe Deters decided to retry University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing for murder and voluntary manslaughter, as opposed to lesser charges.  
• Judge Ghiz denied Deters' request for a change of venue.
• Deters decided not to personally retry Tensing and instead handed the case to Assistant Prosecutors Seth Tieger and Stacey DeGraffenreid.
• Judge Ghiz issued orders restricting media outlets covering the trial. The Enquirer and other media outlets sued Ghiz. After a hearing ordered by the First District Court of Appeals, Ghiz did allow a fixed-position video camera.
• The T-shirt worn by Tensing the day he fatally shot Sam DuBose in 2015, emblazoned with a Confederate flag and seen by jurors in the first trial, was not permitted in the retrial. Ghiz deemed the shirt as too prejudicial. 
• During cross-examination, prosecution witness Cincinnati Sgt. Shannon Heine said she thought Tensing was justified in shooting Sam DuBose. 
• During closing arguments, the prosecution, in what was deemed a rare move, criticized Heine saying she asked Tensing “easy question after easy question” and never intended for him to face charges.
• In a sign that the prosecution may not have been confident that it could get a conviction on murder or voluntary manslaughter, it requested the jury consider a lesser charge of reckless homicide. Ghiz denied the request.

Related:

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