Alabama attorney general pushes for trial of an ex-officer accused of fatally shooting an armed man
In a court brief filed late Tuesday, Attorney General Steve Marshall said a lower court was correct in ruling that former Decatur police officer Mac Marquette, 25, failed to show "a clear legal right to prosecutorial immunity' when he fatally shot Stephen Perkins on Sept. 29, 2023.
Shortly before 2 a.m., Marquette and two other officers accompanied the tow truck driver to repossess Perkins' pickup truck at his home in Decatur. When Perkins emerged from his house pointing a gun at the truck driver, Marquette fired 18 bullets less than two seconds after the officers emerged from a concealed position and identified themselves as law enforcement, according to body camera footage.
The appeals court decision, and the fate of the trial, hinges on Alabama's ' stand your ground ' law, which grants immunity from prosecution to anyone who uses deadly force as long as they reasonably believe they're in danger and are somewhere they're rightfully allowed to be. Alabama allows judges to determine if someone acted in self-defense before a case goes to trial.
After a Morgan County judge denied Marquette immunity in April, the ex-officer's lawyers asked the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the decision. The appeals court said the circuit judge's decision was a 'gross abuse of discretion' because the judge didn't give enough weight to Marquette's assertion that he feared for his life after Perkins pointed his gun at the officer before he was shot.
If the appeals court rules against Marquette, he will go to trial in September.
The shooting drew regular protests in the north Alabama city, and the three officers were fired after personnel hearings. Marquette is white.
While the attorney general's brief didn't contest that Marquette feared for his life, he argued that witnesses in a pre-trial hearing failed to establish that Marquette was at Perkins' house on legitimate police duty, and therefore 'there remain open questions regarding whether he had a legal right" to be there.
The brief, written by the Assistant Attorney General Kristi Wilkerson, pointed to conflicting testimony from the two officers who were with Marquette when he shot Perkins.
One officer testified that the three officers were at Perkins' house to investigate a misdemeanor menacing charge since Perkins had previously pulled a gun on the tow truck driver in an attempt to repossess Perkins' truck earlier that night. The other officer testified that he was unaware of a menacing investigation, saying that he believed they were there to assist in 'keeping the peace.'
Alabama law requires a court order for law enforcement to be involved in a vehicle repossession — which the officers didn't have.
Testimony from a state agent who investigated the shooting, Jamie King, also conflicted with both officers' accounts of the moments leading up to the shooting. King said that while Marquette may have feared for his life, the three officers were not positioned in an effective way to keep the peace or to investigate menacing since they were intentionally out of Perkins' view until seconds before the shooting.
Marquette's attorneys have argued that there is more than one way to conduct police operations.
In light of the ambiguity, Marshall's office said deference should be given to the trial court's position, and that a jury "alone is in the best position to determine the trustworthiness of testimony presented to it.'
All parties in the case are prohibited from speaking to the media.
___
Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
38 minutes ago
- New York Post
Kenshin Kamimura convicted of indecent assault, but avoided jail time in Hong Kong
Japanese pop idol Kenshin Kamimura was found guilty of a charge of indecent assault on a female interpreter in a Hong Kong court on Wednesday before some emotional fans. Kamimura, a former member of a Japanese boy group named ONE N' ONLY, was arrested in the southern Chinese city of March. In the same month, his contract was terminated due to a serious compliance violation. In April, he pleaded not guilty. 4 Japanese pop idol Kenshin Kamimura was found guilty of a charge of indecent assault on a female interpreter in a Hong Kong court on Wednesday. AFP via Getty Images He allegedly touched the interpreter's thigh repeatedly during a celebratory dinner at a restaurant. During the trial last month, the interpreter testified through a live video link that Kamimura had invited her to a bathroom elsewhere. After she dismissed the request and told him she had a boyfriend, Kamimura continued to touch her thigh, she said. The defense argued the interpreter exaggerated her claims, and the alleged bathroom invitation might not have been based on improper motives. Judge Peter Yu handed down the conviction on Wednesday, saying Kamimura touched the interpreter in a caressing manner that implicitly carried a sexual undertone and had indecent intent. 'The defendant's acts are obviously disrespectful toward women,' Yu said. 'Such behavior should be condemned.' 4 Kamimura, a former member of a Japanese boy group named ONE N' ONLY, was arrested in the southern Chinese city of March. AP In pleading for a lesser penalty, the defense said Kamimura previously had a promising future and paid a heavy price. After the verdict was announced, a few of Kamimura's fans wept in the courtroom. But Kamimura looked relieved and hugged his courtroom translator when the judge issued a fine of 15,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $1,900) and no prison term. The maximum penalty for the charge is 10 years of imprisonment. The singer's supporters, including some from Japan and mainland China, formed long lines inside the court building to secure a seat in the main courtroom before the hearing. 4 Judge Peter Yu handed down the conviction on Wednesday, saying Kamimura touched the interpreter in a caressing manner that implicitly carried a sexual undertone and had indecent intent. AP After the hearing, they waited outside to see Kamimura, who did not speak before leaving in a car. Others from mainland China who attended said they were not fans but wanted to learn more about the case, especially after seeing criticism of the female interpreter online. University student Betty Zhong from the Chinese city of Shenzhen said she was not a Kamimura fan but attended the court hearings in Hong Kong because a friend likes the J-pop idol and she wanted to know what happened. 4 Fans of J-pop performer Kenshin Kamimura wait outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong on Wednesday, August 13, 2025. AP She said she was surprised Kamimura was charged during a visit to Hong Kong. 'News reports are not so comprehensive. When I come here, I can understand it holistically and the explanations from both sides,' she said. Kamimura is also an actor who appeared in several TV dramas, including the boys' love series 'Our Youth' and the popular drama 'Ossan's Love Returns.'
The Hill
38 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump's autocratic dreams come true as National Guard turns DC into a police state
Nothing in President Trump's second term has captured his autocratic imagination quite like turning federalized police and military troops against the Black mayors of Democratic cities. Trump's target list expanded on Monday, when he seized control of Washington, D.C.'s local police and deployed 800 National Guard troops to patrol the streets. Trump spared no bluster in portraying the people of the District of Columbia as animals consumed by violent criminal instincts, remarking to reporters that they 'fight back until you knock the hell out of them, because it's the only language they understand.' That would come as a shock to the D.C. police, who confirmed that violent crime is down 26 percent in the city this year and currently sits at a 30-year low. Of course, it shouldn't surprise anyone to see Trump portraying a majority-minority city as a haven of crime and thuggery. He did the same in Los Angeles, where he dispatched the National Guard in June to terrorize the city's mayor — his long-time political foe Karen Bass. Now Trump is hinting at expanding his deployments to Chicago and New York, two more Democratic cities with Black mayors and large minority populations. Are you noticing a pattern? Trump's federal takeover of Washington blends the president's love of strongman authoritarianism with his passion for spreading toxic lies about nonwhite people, as he did in grand fashion at his hate-filled October 2024 rally at Madison Square Garden, or as he continues to do in his threats to arrest New York's Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani. After rolling over LA and Washington with minimal resistance, it's naive to think Trump will ever stop at threats. Worse still, many of the bigoted sycophants who boosted Trump's hateful rhetoric during the campaign are now seated in positions of real power, especially at the Department of Justice and the FBI. This time Trump has ensured the loyalty of his officers. This time there won't be a Gen. Mark Milley with the moral courage to publicly condemn Trump for his first-term militaristic excesses. Democratic lines about Washington's low crime rate won't make a difference to the White House because what Trump is doing has fundamentally nothing to do with crime. Trump loves the way deploying troops makes him feel. He loves the raw, unadulterated power of moving hundreds or thousands of soldiers into cities as civilian authorities ineffectively try to stop him. In a second term marked by a string of high-profile fumbles, sending out the troops makes Trump feel like he's actually doing something. The president's fixation on being seen as a hard-nosed military leader is one reason why his immigration raids have grown in theatricality and severity — even as more than 55 percent of Americans (including 15 percent of Republicans voters) say his Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gone too far. It's also why a growing number of political observers are sounding alarms about how Trump is misusing the nation's nonpartisan military to settle domestic political fights. In a sign of just how far Trump is willing to go to realize his autocratic dreams, he also asked the Supreme Court last week to allow racial profiling in California ICE raids under the bogus argument that it's simply too hard to deport illegal immigrants without it. Instead, Trump is proposing a standard where simply speaking Spanish would be sufficient grounds for arrest — an idea so repulsive that a majority of Americans have opposed it for four decades. It took less than a year for a second Trump administration to fill the streets of major cities with soldiers, ICE agents and heavy armored vehicles. The cost of those military excursions to the taxpayer has been enormous, with initial Pentagon estimates of $134 million for Los Angeles alone. Those numbers have almost certainly swelled as ICE raids have grown to match Trump's fury at Mayor Bass, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California Democrats. The skyrocketing cost of Trump's deployments is secondary, to be sure, to the imminent threat they pose to the growing number of American citizens caught in ICE's overly broad immigration dragnets. Since Trump's military mobilizations are driven by optics and ego instead of policy, Trump is free to declare them successful even if the raids fail to net a single legal arrest. Trump's latest incursion into Washington won't be the last. But this is not Russia or Venezuela. Americans get to vote in elections as early as this November, and millions of those voters plan to use their ballot to oppose Republicans' growing police state. None of that seems to matter to Trump. After all, the ratings are huge.
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Clashes erupt at Serbian anti-government protests, with dozens injured
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Clashes erupted at protests in Serbia between opponents and supporters of the government in an escalation of tensions following more than nine months of persistent demonstrations against populist President Aleksandar Vucic. The skirmishes first started on Tuesday evening in Vrbas, northwest of the capital Belgrade, where riot police separated protesters from the opposing camps outside the governing Serbian Progressive Party offices in the town. Images from the scene showed government supporters throwing flares, rocks and bottles at the protesters, who hurled back various objects. Police said that dozens of people were injured, including 16 police officers. Similar incidents were reported at protests in other parts of the country. The student-led protests in Serbia first started in November after a train station canopy collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people and triggering accusations of corruption in state infrastructure projects. Protests have since drawn hundreds of thousands of people, shaking Vucic's firm grip on power in Serbia. The president's supporters have recently started organizing counterdemonstrations, fueling fears of violence. Police said that several people were detained after the clashes in Vrbas. Police Commissioner Dragan Vasiljevic told state-run RTS television that the protesters 'came to attack' the governing party supporters outside the party's offices. Vucic said at a news conference on Wednesday with Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker that pro-democracy protests in Serbia have been 'very violent and were violent last night.' Serbia's president, other government officials and pro-government media repeatedly have described the protesters as 'terrorists,' though protests in Serbia since November have been largely peaceful. Protesters have said that government supporters attacked them first in Vrbas and also further south in Backa Palanka and later in Novi Sad and the southern city of Nis. In Belgrade, riot police pushed away protesters who gathered in a downtown area. Led by university students, the protesters are demanding that Vucic call an early parliamentary election, which he has refused to do. Protesting students have also called for the ouster of Interior Minister Ivica Dacic over recent violence at demonstrations. Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China. He has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms since coming to power 13 years ago.
