Cop in Subway Shooting Freed

After serving 11 months of a two-year term, a former Bay Area transit cop convicted in the killing of an unarmed passenger in 2009 has been released. Johannes Mehserle became the center of a racial firestorm when he killed Oscar Grant, a young black man, on an Oakland subway platform. Mehserle maintained in court that he meant to use his stun gun on Grant, but instead he used his .40 caliber gun to shoot Grant in the back. Peaceful protests marked Mehserle’s exit from jail, though he was able to slip out unnoticed.