King County Sheriff's Deputy Melvin Miller did not violate Robert Thomas Sr.'s constitutional rights when he fatally shot him in a parked pickup three years ago in the deputy's neighborhood, a federal jury found yesterday. A U.S. District Court jury in Seattle rejected a claim by Thomas' estate that in firing three shots into the pickup, shots that killed Thomas Sr. and wounded Robert Thomas Jr. in the hand, Miller used excessive force and violated the Thomases' rights under the Fourth Amendment, which calls for protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. Thomas Sr. was black, Miller is white and the shooting, which occurred east of Renton, prompted demonstrations by the NAACP and others, who less than a year earlier had protested the fatal shooting of another African-American man, Aaron Roberts, by a white Seattle police officer. An inquest jury found that the officer had "reasonable fear" that Roberts posed an imminent threat. The verdict in the $25 million wrongful-death lawsuit marks the latest vindication for Miller, who has maintained since the April 7, 2002, shooting that he acted in self-defense. In the federal case, all members of the seven-member jury were white. Bradley Marshall, the Thomas family's attorney, said the entire jury pool was white. [more]
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