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St. Louis Cop Charged in 2011 Death Faces Trial This Week

Paul Sableman
/
flickr

  A murder trial begins this week for a white former St. Louis police officer accused of killing a black suspect nearly six years ago.

Jason Stockley is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the December 2011 shooting death of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith. Charges were filed last year. Then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce cited unspecified new evidence.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Smith was shot following a police chase during a drug investigation. The bench trial begins Tuesday. It's expected to last two weeks.

The trial is the latest of several across the U.S. involving the fatal police shootings of black men. Officers were acquitted in recent trials in Minnesota and Oklahoma. Another Oklahoma cased in early July ended in a hung jury.

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