Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, granted clemency to a fired police sergeant simply days after the officer was sentenced to jail in reference to taking pictures and killing an unarmed man accused of stealing sun shades.
Wesley Shifflett, 36, was sentenced Friday to 3 years in jail after he was discovered responsible of recklessly dealing with a firearm within the Feb. 22, 2023, killing of 37-year-old Timothy McCree Johnson. He was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in Johnson’s loss of life.
Youngkin granted Shifflett clemency on Sunday, permitting the officer to be free of jail, though his felony conviction will stay.
“I’m satisfied that the court docket’s sentence of incarceration is unjust and violates the cornerstone of our justice system—that equally located people obtain proportionate sentences,” Youngkin mentioned in a press release. “I need to emphasize {that a} jury acquitted Sgt. Shifflett of the extra severe cost of involuntary manslaughter, a conviction for which the sentencing pointers suggest no jail time or as much as six months’ incarceration.”
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin gestures as he delivers his annual State of the Commonwealth deal with earlier than a joint session of the Virginia Common Meeting on the Capitol, Jan. 13, 2025 in Richmond, Virginia. (AP)
“On this case, the court docket rejected the Senior Probation and Parole Officer’s advice of no incarceration nor supervised probation and as an alternative imposed a sentence of 5 years’ incarceration with two suspended and an extra 5 years of probation,” the governor continued. “Sgt. Shifflett has no prior prison report, and was, by all accounts, an exemplary police officer. It’s within the curiosity of justice that he be launched instantly.”
Youngkin additionally famous that his clemency doesn’t restrict Shifflett’s proper to attraction his conviction for reckless discharge of a firearm.
Johnson’s mom, Melissa Johnson, mentioned Youngkin’s choice felt as if it validated Shifflett’s killing of her son.
“Why now do we discover it essential to vacate or not contemplate the jury’s verdict, and to assume that this honorable and truthful decide didn’t sentence throughout the pointers that he was afforded to?” she mentioned at a information convention on Monday. “I don’t know the place everybody’s coming from — if it is as a result of my son was Black, or as a result of it was tried shoplifting, or as a result of he’s not right here to defend himself.”
Fairfax County Commonwealth Legal professional Steve Descano, a Democrat whose workplace prosecuted the case, mentioned on the information convention that the governor “caught his face in the place it did not belong.”
“In the event you care about having a good justice system of Virginia that’s untainted by exterior affect, Glenn Youngkin simply spit your face,” Descano mentioned.
The Fairfax County, Virginia, Courthouse, is seen, March 7, 2023. (AP)
Descano additionally argued that the governor was siding with a “White officer that was convicted of against the law that resulted in a Black man being killed.”
Through the trial, prosecutors argued that Shifflett, who on the time was a sergeant with Fairfax County police, acted recklessly when he shot and killed Johnson after a brief foot pursuit exterior Tysons Nook Middle. Police had acquired a report from safety guards that Johnson had stolen sun shades from a Nordstrom division retailer.
Shifflett and one other officer chased Johnson right into a densely wooded space close to the mall earlier than Shifflett shot twice at Johnson, who was unarmed.
The previous sergeant testified that he shot Johnson in self-defense after he believed Johnson reached into his waistband as soon as he fell.
Physique digicam video performed in the course of the trial confirmed Shifflett yelling “Get on the bottom” earlier than firing two photographs at Johnson two seconds later. After firing his weapon, Shifflett instantly shouted, “Cease reaching,” and presupposed to different officers that he noticed Johnson placing his hand in his waistband.
Shifflett testified that his “motor features had been working extra rapidly than I might verbalize.”
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Fairfax County Commonwealth Legal professional Steve Descano speaks at an occasion on the Middle for American Progress on Tuesday, December 17, 2019. (Getty Pictures)
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Johnson was heard within the footage saying, “I’m not reaching for nothing. I don’t don’t have anything.”
Melissa Robey, govt director of the police advocacy group We Black Blue, mentioned Monday that Shifflett’s mom referred to as her three weeks in the past about her son’s upcoming sentencing listening to to ask for assist.
Robey, who beforehand labored in Youngkin’s administration, mentioned she contacted Shifflett’s attorneys, who in the end lobbied the governor for clemency.
“Anyone’s received to say ‘Sufficient is sufficient,'” Robey mentioned. “These guys put that uniform on each single day — they’re there to your worst day. When is it time to face up for them?”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
