Grand Rapids, Mich. (Wood) – Family members, lawyers, demonstrators, observers and Christopher Shur spent Wednesday waiting as the jurors continued to discuss in the former officer’s murder process at the death of Patrick Leah.
The jurors worked from about 8:30 to shortly after 4:30 pm, but by the end of the day they had not yet reached a sentence.
“I can’t comment on the proceedings while they continue, but the process is discussing the jury. Nothing happened today. So, we’re just waiting,” one of Shur’s defense attorneys told Matthew Borgula, told the News 8 as he left the courtroom.
He noted that “it is not so unusual to have a hearing for two or three days.”
“I don’t read anything in it,” he said.
Christopher Shur listens to the Grand Rapids courtroom on May 6, 2025, as jurors discussed in their second -degree murder process at the death of Patrick Leah.
Updates from Wednesday’s discussions
The jurors had told the judge on Tuesday afternoon that they could not reach a sentence. She told them to continue trying.
They had gone through more than a week from the testimony of 23 witnesses including Whipbefore Received the case on Monday afternoonS Their job is to decide if it was a murder when Shur, then a police officer in Grand Rapids, shot and killed Patrick Lioya After stopping the movement in April 2022S
Patrick Leah (courtesy of Lia family courtesy)
Proponents of Shur and the Leah family gathered out of court on Wednesday, as well as for days. Shur’s supporters had flags of “thin blue lines”. Leah’s supporters killed the sidewalk with the message “Justice 4 Patrick”.
Tuesday had a out -of -the -court disturbance The inclusion of demonstrators and police, but the situation was more relaxed on Wednesday. There were several verbal Jaba between the two groups and the officers came in once in the morning to help de -escalation. And there were many more civil conversations between supporters on both sides.
“It is not necessary to agree with one’s thoughts or how they feel, but I think respect is respect,” Erica Cage, a supporter of Leah, told News 8. “We just want a sentence at this point. At this point everything is very emotional. It is very exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally.”
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Proponents of Christopher Shur outside the Kent County Court of Justice as jurors discuss in his second -degree murder trial at the death of Patrick Leah. (7 May 2025)
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Patrick Leah’s supporters demonstrate outside the Kent County Judicial Court, as jurors discuss in the second -degree Christopher Shur killing process. (7 May 2025)
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Proponents of the Patrick Leah family use chalk to paint on the sidewalk in front of the Grand Rapids Court of Justice, where Christopher Shur is an attempt to murder at Leah’s death. (7 May 2025)
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Employees are gathering outside the Court of Justice, as more protesters gather as the jurors continue to discuss in the Christopher Shur case, who is accused of murder in Patrick Leah’s death. (7 May 2025)
Proponents of Shur, who refused an interview, shared the same moods. But, they said, the longer the discussions continue, the more hope they are.
A demonstrator said he could understand the prospects of the two groups. Wearing an American flag, he said he was there to encourage unity.
“I have mixed feelings for this. I don’t think he had to be shot in the back of the head. I think it was just a bad situation on both sides,” he said. “Look what is happening in this district, do you know? I just get tired of the division on both sides.”
The judge tells the jurors to continue working after saying they are closed in the case of Shur
The secret of the process means that it is impossible to say what happened in the jurors’ room during his nearly 20 hours of discussions so far.
“Everyone is waiting with a breath – certainly the protesters, the officer Shur, the family of Patrick Leah. Everyone wants a closure. Everyone wants a conclusion about it,” said Professor Tracy Bram of the Faculty of Law on Tower in front of News 8 on Wednesday. “But now it is really in the hands of the jury and it sounds as if they had taken the judge seriously and trying to do their job.”
She said the first statement that jurors could not reach a sentence suggest that some of them may have “rooted opinions” that they may need to try to overcome by managing them through testimony. She acknowledged that the decision was not easy in case like this.
“The initial impasse was perhaps the remains of some idea of what they thought had happened or some perspective that they had brought into the jurors’ room,” Bram said. “And we hope that they are now peeling off these layers again to try to put aside this polarization and say,” What happened in the case, regardless of what I think about these issues, about police policy, about it. “
“This is what the judge asks them to do and the parties want to do is fight the noise and look at what happened in this case,” she continued, “and they seem to be trying to do so.”
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