MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A former Alabama police officer who shot an armed Black man is trying to win back his claim to self-defense before his upcoming murder trial, and appealed a judge’s pretrial decision as a “gross abuse of discretion.”
The appeal 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.
Mac Marquette, 25, is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Steve Perkins shortly before 2 a.m. in September 2023. Marquette and two other officers were accompanying a tow-truck driver to repossess Perkins’ pickup truck at his home in Decatur. When Perkins emerged from his house with a gun, Marquette fired 18 bullets less than two seconds after identifying himself as law enforcement, according to body camera footage.
Court documents filed on Thursday said the judge erroneously ruled against Marquette based on his assessment that Marquette didn’t sufficiently prove he had a right to be on Perkins’ property. Alabama allows judges to determine if someone acted in self defense before a case goes to trial.
The judge said Alabama law requires a court order for law enforcement to be involved in a vehicle repossession — which the officers didn’t have.
Marquette’s lawyers say the judge should have given more weight to the fact that Perkins pointed his gun at the officer before he was shot. They say Marquette reasonably felt that running away from Perkins would’ve put him in more danger than standing his ground.
The defense also says the officers had a legitimate reason to be there, based on the “custom, pattern, and practice of the Decatur Police Department” and because their supervisor authorized it.
Both officers who were with Marquette testified they weren’t there to assist in the repossession, but were instead there to “keep the peace” and to “investigate” Perkins for pulling a gun on the tow-truck driver in an earlier repossession attempt.
The state agent who investigated Perkins’ death testified in March that the way that the officers set up wasn’t standard for either of those tasks, but also said that Marquette had a reason to fear for his life.
All parties in the case are prohibited from speaking to the media.
The hearing comes on the heels of two years of intense protest about Perkins’ death in the northern Alabama city of approximately 60,000 people. A Black man experiencing a mental health crisis died in Decatur Police Department custody in April. Body camera footage showing police officers punching and tasing him repeatedly reignited debate over police misconduct in the area.
Marquette’s attorneys requested a postponement of the trial originally set for June, and a chance to present oral arguments in front of the Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals.
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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.
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