Arkansas Cop Who Fatally Shot Teen Wants Job Back After Prosecutors Decline to Try Him for Third Time

Prosecutors in Pulaski County,
Arkansas,
won’t try Josh Hastings a third time for the fatal shooting of
Bobby Moore, Jr. in 2012. The former Little Rock police officer’s
previous two trials ended with hung juries. The first time the jury
deadlocked 10-2 in favor of convicting Hastings on charges of
manslaughter. David Koons of the Arkansas
Times spoke to one of the jurors
from the first trial:

The marquee quote from the juror on the two female
holdouts who refused to convict: “They were biased. I really feel
like they were, because they couldn’t get past the badge.”

In part, said the juror, the two holdouts favored acquittal because
Hastings in the fatal shooting was “preventing future
crimes.”

The same judge, Wendell Griffen, presided over both trials. The
judge expressed concern about bias in the first jury selection,
which yielded an all-white panel. Defense attorneys argued the
judge should recuse
himself from the re-trial because of his own antipathy toward
police. Griffen denied it, taking charge of questioning during jury
selection for the second trial. That trial also ended with a
deadlocked jury, this time 11-1 in favor of acquittal.

After being told in court by prosecutors about the decision not
to re-try Hastings, Griffen noted that it was “not an acquittal.”
Nevertheless, Hastings was given his government-issued badge and
gun back.
Via the Arkansas Times:

Hastings’ attorney Bill
James said Hastings will seek a civil service hearing to
get his job with the Little Rock Police Department back. “He did
what he had to do,” James said of Hastings shooting
Moore. 

“There are no winners here,” James said outside the courthouse, “a
family lost their son, his buddies lost their friend, Mr. Hastings
lost the better part of two years of his life dealing with this.”
James said that Hastings and his family are happy that they can
move on with their lives, adding that he can’t imagine that new
evidence would be brought forward that would lead to the case being
reopened.

Hastings was
initially charged with manslaughter after internal
investigators at the Little Rock Police Department determined that
the officer’s account of the speed and direction of the stolen car
he claimed the 15-year-old Moore was trying to drive at him didn’t
match the evidence.