“Under South Carolina law, this case is not death penalty-eligible,” Scarlett Wilson, who will be prosecuting the suspect, said as quoted by The Post and Courier newspaper.
According to Wilson, after reviewing the state’s death penalty statute, she came to a conclusion that the case lacks the aggravating circumstances that would trigger her to seek the death penalty for Slager.
Protests broke out in North Charleston after the video of the fatal shooting was released on April 7. On Thursday, community organization Black Lives Matter-Charleston called for the creation of a citizens review board to investigate police misconduct following the killing.
Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Walter Scott on Saturday.
In recent months, the United States has seen a wave of mass protests against police brutality prompted by several killings of primarily unarmed African-American men by white police officers.
Among the most notable recent cases are the killings of Eric Garner, who was unarmed and died after being put in an illegal chokehold by an officer in New York City, and Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager who was fatally shot in Ferguson, Missouri.
