MINNESOTA (Washington Insider Magazine) – According to court filings, prosecutors are demanding a seven-year jail term for Kim Potter, the former Minnesota law enforcement officer who gunned down Daunte Wright during a traffic check last year.
Potter, 49, faces a term of 86 months — approximately 7 years and 2 months — when she is sentenced on Friday, according to a sentencing memorandum submitted Tuesday.
On April 11, Potter, a Brooklyn Center police officer at the point, fatally shot Wright, 20, after she accidentally pulled her Glock pistol instead of a Taser, according to her.
In December, a jury found her guilty of 1st and 2nd-degree manslaughter.
The deadly shooting of Wright, a Black man, by a white cop spurred additional protests and demands for justice all across Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, and in many other places around the United States.
According to NBC NEWS, the state attorney general’s office argued in a sentencing brief filed Tuesday that the presumed term of 86 months under state standards is the correct one.
According to authorities, Wright was pulled over by police because of expired license plates and an air freshener swinging from his rearview mirror. According to police, they found an outstanding warrant for Wright’s arrest and attempted to apprehend him before he was shot.
At trial, Potter testified that officers were attempting to stop Wright from speeding away and that she remembers shouting “Taser” before being told she had shot him. She also apologized with tears in her eyes.
A request for comment from Potter’s lawyer was not immediately returned Tuesday evening.
In motions, Potter’s lawyers claimed that she should be offered a shorter prison sentence. They point to her lack of criminal background and remorse as reasons for the decrease, as well as the fact that she will never work in police departments again.
In another argument, Potter’s lawyers contended that Wright worsened the situation by attempting to run from the police and that a victim’s behavior is grounds for a sentence reduction.
In the state’s sentencing brief, prosecutors dismissed this as an attempt to blame Wright for his own death.
Prosecutors claimed Wright was not aggressive and attempted to drive away from an officer, but that Potter resorted to a high degree of force while the issue was under control, and that her irresponsibility caused his death.
Wright was shot and killed by a white law enforcement officer less than one year after another Black man, George Floyd, was killed by a white cop in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death triggered a nationwide outcry.
Derek Chauvin, the officer involved in the case, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to over 22 years in jail. Three additional former Minneapolis policemen are on trial in federal court and face state charges as well.
Image via CNN
