COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A white former police officer serving 20 years in prison for killing an unarmed Black man who ran from a South Carolina traffic stop said his lawyer never told him about an initial plea offer from prosecutors. He said that offer could have cut years off his sentence. Ex-North Charleston police officer Michael Slager is requesting a new sentence in federal court. But prosecutors say the error by Slager’s former lawyer doesn’t merit tossing out the 20-year sentence for the 2015 shooting. Slager pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge in 2017 for shooting Walter Scott in the back five times — a shooting captured on cellphone video.
