Jury weighing fate of New Orleans Police officers accused in Beating Death of Unarmed Black Man, cover-up

From [HERE] and [HERE] NEW ORLEANS -- A jury began deliberating Monday the fate of two New Orleans police officers charged in a 2005 beating death and its alleged cover-up.

Before the jury of seven men and five women began their deliberations, they heard strong closing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys.

At issue is whether or not officer Melvin Williams kicked and beat 48-year-old Raymond Robair to death on a Treme sidewalk in July 2005, and whether Williams and his then-partner Matthew Moore conspire to cover up the facts in what the government claims was a flagrant abuse of police power.

Robair's case was one of several highlighted in a report published by ProPublica in February questioning the work of Dr. Paul McGarry, a forensic pathologist who had conducted death inquiries for Orleans Parish for almost 30 years.

The investigation, conducted in partnership with PBS "Frontline" and NPR, found that McGarry had made a series of autopsy errors and oversights that had cleared police officers of wrongdoing. In each case, the families of the deceased hired an expert to conduct a second autopsy that found the death to be a homicide.

McGarry concluded that Robair's 2005 death was an accident; the Orleans Parish district attorney declined to prosecute Williams and Moore because McGarry's autopsy had, as an assistant district attorney wrote to the New Orleans police department in a 2008 letter, "effectively exonerated" them. But Dr. Kris Sperry, a forensic pathologist hired by Robair's family, found 23 injuries McGarry had missed and determined the fatal laceration of Robair's spleen was caused by a beating.

The FBI had reportedly been investigating the case since at least August 2005, when an attorney for Robair's family urged federal investigators to examine Robair's death. The FBI confirmed its probe last March and a grand jury indicted the officers in July.

According to the Times-Picayune, Sperry, who testified on Tuesday, criticized McGarry for failing to examine Robair's ruptured spleen or the "massive hemorrhaging and bruising, consistent with baton strikes or kicks."

McGarry, who no longer works for Orleans Parish, testified on Thursday and stuck to his original findings -- Robair died of an accidental fall.

Friday's testimony introduced more medical confusion when Dr. Michael Baden, a third pathologist appearing as a witness for the defense, blamed Robair's death on hospital staff members who took too long to treat Robair's injuries. According to Baden, there was inadequate medical evidence to determine exactly how Robair sustained the injuries, but they need not have been fatal.

Both officers have pleaded not guilty to obstruction charges for writing a false report. Moore also faces a charge of lying to the FBI.

Williams faces life in prison, while Moore is exposed to up to 25 years.

The jury suspended deliberations for the day at about 5:30 p.m. Deliberations will continue 8 a.m. Tuesday.