From [HERE] and [HERE] NEW ORLEANS -- A jury began deliberating Monday the fate of two New Orleans police officers charged in a 2005 beating death and its alleged cover-up.

Before the jury of seven men and five women began their deliberations, they heard strong closing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys.

At issue is whether or not officer Melvin Williams kicked and beat 48-year-old Raymond Robair to death on a Treme sidewalk in July 2005, and whether Williams and his then-partner Matthew Moore conspire to cover up the facts in what the government claims was a flagrant abuse of police power.

Robair's case was one of several highlighted in a report published by ProPublica in February questioning the work of Dr. Paul McGarry, a forensic pathologist who had conducted death inquiries for Orleans Parish for almost 30 years.

The investigation, conducted in partnership with PBS "Frontline" and NPR, found that McGarry had made a series of autopsy errors and oversights that had cleared police officers of wrongdoing. In each case, the families of the deceased hired an expert to conduct a second autopsy that found the death to be a homicide.