Michael Slager now sits in jail as a convicted felon, much like the person who occupied his cell before him.
But unlike Dylann Roof, the mass killer whose death sentence was broadly expected, Slager’s fate will remain a mystery until a judge decides it.
Much is riding on the result.
Some advocates, who point to the video of the former North Charleston patrolman shooting Walter Scott, want a stiff penalty that deters other police officers from using excessive force. But experts doubt that the prison sentence, lengthy or not, would do that.