Justice for ‘Tay’: Strong closing argument led to landmark conviction in Dean case | Opinion

In the end, Atatiana Jefferson was not forgotten.

The second-year police officer who was sent to check on her safety but then shot her in her own home will go to jail.

The district attorney and prosecutors, criticized early for what seemed like a dispassionate effort, brought enough emotion in their closing arguments to remind a jury with no Black members about the hopes and dreams of “Tay,” a 28-year-old woman sitting innocently with her nephew.

Three years later, the national news reporters who were so interested in 2019 had mostly moved on to other police reform cases. But local reporters and cameras were still on hand to cover the manslaughter conviction of former officer Aaron Dean.

It is believed to be the first conviction of a Tarrant County officer in an on-duty shooting.

(In 2012, a Fort Worth officer faced a manslaughter charge but eventually pleaded guilty to reckless driving in connection with a wreck that killed a 77-year-old retired minister.)

As predicted in 2014 when Fort Worth was among the national leaders in buying police body-cams, the video made a difference.

Had police worn video cameras before 2014, juries would have had more to rely on besides just witness testimony and the word of a trusted officer.

Now, jurors can see for themselves how much — or how little — an officer saw before using deadly force on someone he mistook for a burglar. They now know how little time passed from the time Dean shouted, “Put your hands up!” until he fired.

Defense attorney and former Democratic candidate for judge Lesa Pamplin, the subject of considerable news coverage this year for her own social media posts about race and justice, credited prosecutor Dale Smith for his closing argument.

Smith pointed out that when the officer’s bullet shattered the bedroom window, the glass injured Jefferson’s face but not her arms or hands. That meant she had not raised her gun, Smith said.

We all have a right to a gun and to defend our homes. I’m surprised more Second Amendment activists didn’t take up Jefferson’s cause.

But we all also have a right to defend our own lives against anyone with a gun. And you still have to drop a gun if an officer shouts “Drop it!”

Yet in the body-cam footage, according to the trial coverage, Dean is never heard saying that he saw a gun or Jefferson’s green laser sight until officers found the weapon by her body.

Prosecutors “had a tough job, but they got something,” Pamplin told WFAA/Channel 8. “Now we have to explain to the community that something is better than nothing.”

Jurors weren’t going to convict Dean of murder, Pamplin said. He was guilty of blunders, disregard for training, callousness and carelessness, but proving an intent to kill was a high bar.

“But based on Dale’s closing argument yesterday about the bullet going through the glass .... they held that [surprise] in their quiver,” Pamplin said.

Pamplin, who is Black, credited a jury that included no Black members.

“Everybody wanted to talk about the makeup of the jury,” she said. “These folks had a hard job, but they didn’t brush it off.”

We will never forget the hard work of the jurors, the prosecutors and Judge George Gallagher.

And we will never forget Atatiana.

This story was originally published December 15, 2022 at 4:25 PM.

Bud Kennedy

Opinion Contributor,

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

817-390-7538

Bud Kennedy is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram opinion columnist. In a 54-year Texas newspaper career, he has covered two Super Bowls, a presidential inauguration, seven national political conventions and 19 Texas Legislature sessions.. Support my work with a digital subscription