U.S. prosecutors said on Monday that a white former South Carolina policeman caught on video shooting an unarmed black man in the back committed murder, while defense lawyers argued their client did not deserve to go to prison for life for his crime. Michael Slager, 36, pleaded guilty in May to a federal civil rights charge of using excessive force when he killed 50-year-old Walter Scott in 2015. Slager, then a North Charleston police officer, fired eight shots at Scott’s back after he fled a traffic stop, hitting him five times.
