On Wednesday, November 13, an all-white jury acquitted police officer John Vojtas of involuntary manslaughter charges in the beating death of black motorist Jonny Gammage. How did Pittsburghers take the verdict? Here are some of the responses taken from our Pittsburgh Speaks page:
11/13/96 15:04 I can't imagine how the jury came up with the verdict! Vojtas' blood was found ON Gammage's back! Give me a break. -- A.M., Oakland
11/13/96 15:35 No, I feel that the officers were in the wrong.
11/13/96 17:09 No.....I can't believe it....the coroner said that Jonny was suffocated to death...how could that ACCIDENTALLY happen?
11/13/96 17:47 I think they made the right choice -- afterall, Gammage had a history of not cooperating during police stops.
11/13/96 18:47 NO QUESTION- ABOUT IT WASN'T O.J. INNOCENT TOO!!
11/13/96 18:56 Yes-Police officers in Pgh. are given a bad rap- they shouldn't be punishished for trying to protect us.
11/14/96 7:41 Nope! I think they did not. He was just a black man in a white neighborhood. And we should know better than that!
11/14/96 8:26 Yes, I believe that the jurors heard all the evidence and made the correct decision based on the evidence. Remember, we are innocent until PROVEN guilty!
11/14/96 10:48 I'm just glad that the communites in Pittsburgh can show the intelligence NOT to let the emotions carry them away, unlike Los Angeles.
11/14/96 11:02 No. Gammage was NO different then thousands of honest, hard working AMERICANS.Not guilty? Beyond absurd!!!
11/14/96 11:12 NO. Any time a person, whether white, black, hispanic, or what ever, dies while being arrested and was not shot then someone, meaning the police, had to do something wrong for this person to die. No, I did not hear all of the statements made in the court, but what I did see on TV makes me believe that mr Vojtas was gulity of at least manslauter.
11/14/96 13:52 This will not be the last death in police custody case.Marching is pointless.Sue Brentwood and rename Gamagewood.Money is all you get when cops kill.You will never get justice against the police.No more talk.
11/14/96 14:08 No. Mr. Gammage dies as a result of what those officers did. Why was he not found guilty then? Can you say "O.J. Backlash?"
11/14/96 14:22 no. could an all-white jury from Lackawanna County really be expected to render a fair verdict in THIS case? not in post-OJ america.
11/14/96 15:49 Yes. I have more faith in our system then to believe in 5 bad cops and a biased jury of 12 who all agreed on not guilty.
11/14/96 20:54 This man Jonny Gammage did nothing wrongexcept to be blck driving late at nightthrough a white boro. This man should not have died for that....P.J. Bethel Park
11/14/96 21:30 last week a white man was shot driving in homewood-police said it was racial-he was in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time-never even made the news-three paragraph article on page 6 in the trib.
11/15/96 6:37 Two things...1)Nobody should die in a minor traffic stop, Nobody... 2)There are only two things that anybody should say when approached by the police-"Yes, Sir" & "No, Sir"...they've got the power!
11/15/96 8:20
I think the verdict was totally apropriate. How can you even think of trying a police officer for protecting you and me from know criminals like Gammage? If you remove racism from the situation and focus on the facts in the case you can't help but applaud the fair and just verdict.
As an addendum, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that two jurors, immediately interviewed after the trial, said that Gammage himself was partly to blame for his own death, and that racial bias had nothing to do with it.
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