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Koon's roughhewn rhetoric reminded some onlookers of the unyielding officer played by Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men and seemed likely to polarize jurors the way that character polarized moviegoers. But the defense does not need to win acquittal; it is almost as effective to persuade enough to hang a jury. Outside the courtroom, Koon and Powell boasted of having won at least one female admirer on the jury. Many observers predicted a split verdict -- a slap at most for Briseno and Timothy Wind, something sterner for Koon and especially Powell, who struck the most blows. Powell's attorney Michael Stone tacitly acknowledged this scenario in a closing statement pleading that his client not be made a scapegoat.
Legally, the case centers on three questions. Did officers hit King in the head while he was standing up? By itself that is illegal "deadly force" unless King imperiled officers' lives. The preponderance of evidence says they did, but the videotape is inconclusive and witnesses differ. Did the police use too much force when King was on the ground? That depends on whether he was "aggressive" and "combative." Third, did the officers intend to violate King's civil rights? That depends on whether they knowingly broke department policy. This point, which the earlier prosecution did not have to address, makes conviction tougher to reach.
Where the suburban Simi Valley jury in the first trial heard prosecutors harp on the videotape, this team meticulously countered defense evidence. On whether King's facial wounds came from police batons, Koon testified, "Mr. King fell like a tree. He made a one-point landing on his face." Dr. Harry Smith of San Antonio, Texas, a leading expert witness, asserted this scenario was impossible. The bones beneath King's right eye were crushed to powder, which required a pressure equivalent to 350 lbs., while his nose, which would have been broken by pressure of about 50 lbs., remained intact. Such uneven damage could not come from a flat surface like a parking lot, said Smith, only from something selective, like a baton.
Against defense witness Sergeant Charles Duke, who asserts that the beating was within department guidelines and that there were no "head shots," the first prosecution answered with a career desk officer. This time Duke was rebutted by witnesses with street wisdom: the police academy's trainer in the use of force, Sergeant Mark Conta, and a California Highway Patrol member who saw King beaten, Melanie Singer. Conta said, "We never teach to break bones. I see excessive force here. The picture I see is that of a beaten man who is not combative or aggressive." He faulted each defendant: Koon for failing to intervene, Wind for six "brutal kicks," Briseno for stomping on King's neck, and Powell for a fusillade of chest blows that he termed "the most flagrant violation."
Singer, called by the defense, turned into a booby trap under cross- examination. She saw King hit on the head six times and broke into tears remembering it: "There was blood dripping literally from his mouth, and there was a pool of blood beneath his chin." She described officers on the scene as "standing around" and "joking." She also faulted the claim that King was dangerous because he was apparently high on the drug PCP, saying he showed none of the signs, such as profuse sweating and a trancelike stare.