Off-Duty, Black New Jersey Detective Joseph Walker, 40, Who Shot and Killed White Marylander Joseph Harvey Jr., 36, in MD “Road Rage” Incident was Initially Charged with Murder 2 and “Man”; Charge Since Elevated to Murder I

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

When I initially blogged on this case back on June 12, I said it sounded more like a Murder I than a Murder II case.

After a few days, the shooter's defense attorney comes up with a by now common, at least 20-year-old, get-out-of-jail-free-card story: The white guy called me a "racial epithet," and threatened to kill my family.

The shooter, an investigator with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, and is being held on $1 million bond. However, since Walker he kept firing at an unarmed man he had already disabled, he had time to form intent. Thus, the charge should be Murder One.

Harvey was unarmed, and Walker had already shot and incapacitated him twice, before he gave him the kill shot. However, over at Legal Insurrection, Andrew Branca, whose specialty is the law of self-defense, and who wrote brilliant analyses during the George Zimmerman trial, completely decimates Walker’s self-defense argument.

Since Walker is a black cop, I am amazed that he was charged at all, let alone with Murder I. If the prosecutor’s reconstruction holds up, I can only imagine what Walker had previously gotten away with, on his home turf.
 

N.J. Detective Indicted for Road Rage Murder of Md. Man
Reporting Meghan McCorkell
July 30, 2013 11:21 P.M.
CBS Local

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — A New Jersey police detective is now indicted on first degree murder charges. Police say Joseph Walker gunned down a Maryland man on the side of a highway after a road rage incident spiraled out of control.

Meghan McCorkell has reaction to the indictment.

Detective Joseph Walker was initially charged with second-degree murder but prosecutors have now opted to elevate those charges.

Life in prison. That’s the sentence now facing a New Jersey detective. Forty-year-old Joseph Walker was driving with his wife and three children on Route 3 in Anne Arundel County last month. Witnesses say Walker cut off a car driven by 36-year-old Joseph Harvey, Jr. The two drivers began swerving at each other and eventually pulled onto the side of the road. As Harvey approached, police say Walker shot him three times.

When details of the shooting emerged, friends and neighbors of Harvey told WJZ they were in shock.

“From what I understand, he was falling down when he shot him three more times,” said Jennie Jones.

Jones was like a second mother to Harvey, who lived with her family off and on for 20 years. She says she’s relieved at the grand jury indictment.

“I’m sort of glad because I want him to have to pay for what he did to Joe. I don’t think Joe had a right to be shot,” Jones said.

An attorney for Joseph Walker says his client is innocent and will fight the murder charges.

“He was not the initial aggressor. He acted in this case in self-defense. He was protecting himself and his family and he is looking forward to his day in court,” said Walker’s attorney, Charles Curlett.

Jennie Jones vows to be in court to face down the man who took away Joe Harvey.

“I just prayed that Joe would get justice and maybe he’s going to get it,” she said.
“I hope so.”

Walker was released on a million dollars’ bond last month. He’ll be back in a Maryland courtroom August 19.

Along with first-degree murder, Walker is also charged with two firearms violations.