Since at least 2005 there has not been an officer in the USA convicted of murder for an on-duty shooting. Now former Colorado police officer James Ashby has broken that trend for shooting an unarmed civilian in 2014..

In 2014 27 year-old Jack Jacquez was skateboarding along a highway in Rocky Ford, Colorado. Officer James Ashby stopped him. He said that Jacquez responded to his questioning with profanity but this was countered by another person traveling with Jacquez who said that he just told the officer he was on his way home.

An investigation said that the officer then followed Jacques, to his mother’s house. The officer claimed to have thought that Jacquez was a burglar or trespassing and followed him in. A confrontation ended in two shots being fired and Jacques dying from being shot in the back.

Jacquez had very recently gotten engaged to his pregnant girlfriend before the fatal night.

In June a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and thus past week a judge sentenced James Ashby to 16 years in prison. He faced a potential 48 years.

He will also be eligable for parole in 5 years and has been ordered to pay a $10,000 fine

Jacques’s father said:

“It took me a couple of hours after the verdict was read (for it to settle in),” Jacquez’s father, Jack Jacquez Sr., told the Denver Post. “I was content at first and then started rethinking the whole situation and realized this man got off easy. If you ever want to commit a murder, go to Rocky Ford.”

Vigils and marches hit the small town who were shocked by the slaying. This was two months after Michael Brown has been shot in Ferguson and although not black, Jacquez was hispanic so the issue cut deep.

The Huffington Post reported:

Ashby is the first officer to be convicted of murder in an on-duty shooting since at least 2005, according to data compiled by Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminology at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University. This does not include officers convicted for off-duty incidents not related to police work.

By Stinson’s count, 77 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter resulting from police-involved shootings since the beginning of 2005. Given that police kill around 1,000 civilians every year, according to Stinson’s estimate, most still avoid prosecution entirely. Of the 77 who were charged, 27 officers so far have been convicted ― and Ashby was the only one to be convicted of murder. A number of other cases are still pending and the rest have ended in non-convictions, either through acquittal or dismissal.

Although prosecutors have been able to secure a handful of murder indictments for officers involved in fatal shootings, judges and juries almost never convict them on such severe charges.

In 2014 and 2015, no officers were convicted of either murder or manslaughter. A handful of officers have either been convicted of or have pled guilty to manslaughter charges so far this year, which carry significantly lighter sentences.

But these outcomes are still incredibly rare, especially for cases that go before a jury.

I am happy to hear the family got some justice but as the father said, it may not be enough for what appears to be a straight up murder for no legit reason.

Read more here.