TO: Judge Robert Perry
Re: Petition to Release Johannes Mehserle
Dept #104 Central District
Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center
210 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

To The Honorable Judge Robert Perry,

We the undersigned are requesting that former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle be set free immediately and that all charges are overturned.

The death of Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009 was a tragic accident brought on by poor training in the use, handling, and proper placement of a taser weapon. The training on taser weapons that BART provided to officers, unfortunately, set a series of events in motion that led to the death of Oscar Grant, even long before the event actually occurred. As a result, that training failed Johannes Mehserle at a crucial time he needed it most. Looking back, had BART Police had a mandatory requirement in place that required tasers to be worn on the opposite side of the body to which one would wear their service weapon, and that in order to fire that taser, they would have to cross draw or draw the weapon with the weak hand, then the events of January 1, 2009 would never have happened. We feel that if anyone should be accountable for the tragic day that Oscar Grants life was taken, it should be Bart Police Department, and that this should be a civil matter and NOT a criminal matter.

We feel that Johannes Mehserle is being used as a political punching bag. It is not right and it is not acceptable.

There is no doubt that Johannes was wrongly convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The evidence presented at trial from witnesses and experts clearly proved there was no intent. It also proved the events that transpired that night were purely accidental. Furthermore, he was also wrongly convicted of gun enhancement. Gun enhancement was designed to give criminals who deliberately use guns in the commission of a felony, more time in jail, not to prosecute our police officers for honest accidents that happen while on active duty.

Johannes Mehserle is NOT a criminal. Please do not jail our Law Enforcement Officers when an incident happens that was proven to be a tragic mistake. If you tie the hands of Law Enforcement Officers when an accident on duty occurs, then you will fail Law Enforcement and our communities as a whole and this in itself would be a terrible tragedy.

We the undersigned ask that Johannes Mehserle be set free immediately!