Guilty verdict for Daunte Wright’s killer

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Sentences will be off tomorrow and next week to observe the holidays.

Daunte Wright’s killer has been convicted on two counts of manslaughter; the WHO director-general warns that vaccine boosters are doing the world more harm than good. 

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes.

Kim Potter guilty of manslaughter in death of Daunte Wright

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

• Kimberly Potter, a white former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer, was found guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright. Wright, an unarmed Black man, was 20 when Potter shot him this past April during a traffic stop. [Axios / Nick Halter and Torey Van Oot]
• The defense argued that Potter was within her rights to use a weapon because Wright was using cannabis and resisting arrest, endangering Potter’s and her colleagues’ lives. They also argued that she meant to reach for her Taser, but instead pulled her gun and fatally shot Wright. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune / Paul Walsh, Chao Xiong, and Rochelle Olson]
• That argument did not convince the jury, which deliberated for 27 hours over four days. Potter has not yet been sentenced, but a first-degree manslaughter conviction can carry up to a 15-year sentence. [NYT / Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs]
• Potter had initially pulled Wright over for having expired license tabs and an air freshener on his rearview mirror, then realized he had a warrant out for his arrest for failing to appear in court on a weapons charge. Body camera footage shows that when Wright shook off an officer who was attempting to handcuff him and returned to his car, Potter yelled for a Taser but reached for her department-issued 9mm Glock and shot Wright instead. [NPR / Vanessa Romo and Becky Sullivan]
• While both the defense and prosecution agreed that Potter had made a mistake in drawing the gun, at issue was whether she should be held responsible for it. “She drew a deadly weapon, she aimed it, she pointed it at Daunte Wright’s chest and she fired,” the prosecution said during closing arguments. [CBS]
• Potter testified that Wright did not threaten her or her colleagues during their encounter, and that she neither administered medical care to Wright after shooting him nor checked on her colleagues after she shot Wright. Wright had apparently never fired her gun on duty during her nearly 30-year career, nor had she had a complaint filed against her. [CNN / Ray Sanchez, Adrienne Broaddus, and Brad Parks]
• But her experience and training, the prosecution argued, was precisely what should have kept her from making the fatal mistake. [AP / Amy Forliti and Scott Bauer]

“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic”

• World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus warned Wednesday that the booster programs of wealthy nations could prolong the pandemic by worsening vaccine inequality. “It’s important to remember that the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are in unvaccinated people, not unboosted people,” he said. [NYT / Azi Paybarah]
• Because the virus has more opportunity to mutate when it infects unvaccinated people, expanding access in poor and middle-income countries is more important to stopping Covid-19 and mutations, Tedros said. He previously called for a moratorium on booster programs until 40 percent of each country’s population had received at least one dose of a vaccine. [Al Jazeera]
• About 20 percent of current vaccine doses are being given as boosters, while only about half of the WHO’s member states have inoculated 40 percent of their populations. On Wednesday, Tedros called for countries to vaccinate 40 percent of their populations as soon as possible, and 70 percent of their populations by mid-2022. [UN]
• US health officials have promoted boosters for those 16 and older in the wake of the omicron variant. Israel announced Tuesday that a fourth dose would be available to those 60 and older. [CNBC / Hannah Miao]
• Follow this story: Dylan Scott guides you through the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic in our essential weekly newsletter. Sign up for VoxCare here.

 We write for the people

About 100 children separated from their parents at the southern US border have been reunited with their families. [AP / Ben Fox]

• The Illinois state pension fund has divested from Unilever over Ben & Jerry’s position on the occupied Palestinian territories. [Reuters / Ross Kerber]
• Madagascar police minister Serge Gelle and an air force mechanic swam 12 hours to safety after a helicopter crash. [Al Jazeera]
• Hong Kong has removed a memorial to the Tiananmen Square massacre victims. [BBC]

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

Joan Didion, The White Album. Didion, a pivotal and prolific chronicler of American culture, died Thursday at the age of 87.

2021 was better than 2020. Here's proof. [Spotify]

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