The Law Surrounding the Trial of Christopher Schurr

The trial of Christopher Schurr in the death of Patrick Lyoya started yesterday. We spoke with Professor Emeritus at Cooley Law Lewis Langham to understand how the trial is going to work. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Second degree murder trial for former Grand Rapids Police Department
officer Christopher Sures underway opening statements yesterday. The prosecution under
Chris Becker has rolled out witnesses already, but you and
I could be on this jury. This is West Michigan's
Morning News Steve Kelly and Brett Keita to bring in
a professor emeritus, Lewis Langham from Cooley Law on the

(00:22):
lifeline Professor. Thanks for doing this today.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, more, It's my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
I learned so much about this process when I was
in a jury trial, and everything shifted when the judge
came in and gave us instructions about how this thing
was going to work moving forward. So take a step
back as a professor and maybe consider us students. How
does this process work now?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah? Going forward, the prosecution will continue to put on
their witnesses and they will conduct their direct examination of
their witnesses, asking those open ended questions to allow the
witnesses to answer those questions. I think the prosecutor in
this case may have about probably another three, maybe four

(01:05):
additional witnesses. They'll be cross examined by the defense attorney
and the prosecution. At that point will conclude its case
in chief basically saying I have no more witnesses to call,
I have no additional evidence to admit into these proceedings.
And at that point the judge will look towards the

(01:26):
defense attorney and as the defense attorney, are you prepared
to move forward with calling any witnesses into a couple
of things that can happen at this point?

Speaker 1 (01:35):
So that Sure killed Loyola is not in question, right.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
We have a lot of question in this case.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
They have to prove whether it was murder, right, and
how does that work? And what does that reasonable doubt
thing mean?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Right? So we're looking at whether or not the shooting,
the killing of Patrick Leolia was justified by the police officer,
which basically means whether or not a reasonable police officer
in Christopher Sure's shoes would have felt it necessary to

(02:10):
prevent great bodily harm occurring to themselves or death if
he did not fire his weapon, and or maybe to
protect the general public, but for the most part he
needed to do. That is what the question is. Did
he need to shoot Patrick Leola because he reasonably feared

(02:33):
great body harm or death to himself if he did not,
Based upon the totality of the circumstances and what was
going on at the time, and how.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Do the other factors contributing to this, because there are
a lot of things going on the stop, with what
the illegal license plate, the toxicology report, with the blood
alcohol level of zero point two nine percent, there was
no backup on the scene. I mean, there's a lot
of different factors to consider as far as to get
to what you just talked about, right right.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
So what occurs, I mean, under most circumstances, there's no
backup on the scene at that point based upon the
traffic stop. Officer sure did not expect things to go
this way. Normally people don't react the way Patrick Leoya acted.
So at this point, it's a normal traffic stop until

(03:29):
everything went off the rails. And at that point, now
you need backup because you have an individual that's been
stopped and things are not going well.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
So just shift for a second now to talk about
the defense. The prosecution may rest as early as today
as they are ripping through their witnesses. Where, in your opinion,
will the defense start.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, the defense will make a decision. It's a couple
of things that are going to happen now the defense has
to make a decision whether they're going to call any
character witnesses to take the witness stand and basically indicse
I'm known Officer Christopher Schuer for X number of years
and this is the type of individual he is. And
after those witnesses have concluded their testimony, the decision will

(04:16):
be made, and it's going to be the last thing
that's going to happen whether or not Christopher Schure off.
Sir Christopher Schuer takes the witness stand in his own
defense is a constitutional right not to take the witness stand,
but in a case like this, more than likely he
will take the witness stand and give his version of
why he felt it was necessary to fire his weapon.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
We will give you plenty of updates and use great
resources like Cooley Laws. Professor Emeritus Lewis Langham, thank you
for your time today.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
You're more than welcome. Thanks for having me on