In interview, Stockley says prosecutor made ‘personal’ decision, ‘not a legal one’

Jason Stockley, the former St. Louis police officer acquitted Friday of shooting a man to death while on duty in 2011, said in an exclusive interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that prosecutors should not have filed charges against him.

Stockley, who graduated from Althoff Catholic High School in Belleville, told the newspaper: “Jennifer Joyce made an emotional decision for personal and political reasons, not a legal one.”

Joyce is the former St. Louis Circuit Attorney who decided to pursue charges against Stockley in May 2016, and Stockley told the Post-Dispatch that three weeks prior to his case, demonstrators protested at Joyce’s home about a different police shooting.

Stockley, who has moved to Texas, told the Post-Dispatch: “It feels like a burden has been lifted, but the burden of having to kill someone never really lifts.”

After the Stockley verdict was released Friday, protestors took to the streets of downtown St. Louis and in the Central West End.

This story was originally published September 15, 2017 at 9:48 PM with the headline "In interview, Stockley says prosecutor made ‘personal’ decision, ‘not a legal one’."