Video: 'ABC News special report on the Rodney King trial verdicts (April 17, 1993)'
(Saturday, April 17, 1993, all the verdicts read by 7:06 a.m. PDT) — A federal jury today convicted two Los Angeles police officers and acquitted two others of violating the civil rights of motorist Rodney King during his 1991 arrest and beating.
Many residents of this tense city greeted the convictions of Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer Laurence M. Powell with cheers, while the police, on full mobilization with riot gear, relaxed their guard (Koon and Powell would later be sentenced to 30 months in prison).
Reaction centered more on the two convictions than on the acquittals of Officer Theodore J. Briseno and former Officer Timothy E. Wind, who played smaller roles in the beating, which was captured on amateur videotape and shown nationwide (Wind and Briseno were soon dismissed by the LAPD for their role in the beating).
Video: '30 years after Rodney King LAPD beating video, what has changed?'
Los Angeles seemed to exhale in relief as the verdicts brought to a close two years of turmoil after the March 3, 1991, beating of King, an African American man who was stopped for speeding.
Acquittals of the four officers on assault charges in a state trial in 1992 touched off the worst urban rioting this century; 52 people died and property damage was estimated at nearly $1 billion.
Though the basic facts were the same as in a state trial, the prosecution presented a more coherent and forceful case, relying less heavily on the videotape, as it faced the higher legal burden of proving criminal intent.
The second prosecution was possible, despite the Constitution’s prohibition against double jeopardy, because the state and the Federal Government are considered separate jurisdictions.
