Title: Walter Scott shooting: Ex-officer Michael Slager sentenced to 20 years | CNN
Headings: Ex-South Carolina cop Michael Slager gets 20 years for Walter Scott killing
Ex-South Carolina cop Michael Slager gets 20 years for Walter Scott killing
Family lawyer: Slager sentencing 'historic'
Story highlights
(CNN) —
Life sentence sought
Two families changed forever

Content: Reactions to Walter Scott shooting
PHOTO: David Goldman/AP
Joe Gilliard looks over a fence April 9, 2015, at the spot where Walter Scott was shot and killed by a police officer April 4 in North Charleston, South Carolina. The officer, Michael Slager, has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Scott, an unarmed 50-year-old. Video captured by a bystander showed Slager shooting Scott as he ran away. 1 of 8
Life sentence sought
Federal prosecutors sought a life sentence, arguing Slater, then a North Charleston police officer, had committed second-degree murder and also should be punished for obstructing justice by providing the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division with false statements. Scott Family Photo/Charleston County Sheriff's Office
Related Article Walter Scott killing: Son misses dad 'so much I can't sleep at night'
Slager, 36, shot Scott five times in the back “for running away, simply for having a broken taillight,” Jared Fishman of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division told the court in his closing statement this week. It’s “time to call it what it was – a murder,” Fishman said, specifying second-degree murder. But defense attorney Andy Savage argued that while Slager’s actions were criminal, they did not amount to murder. The appropriate offense was voluntary manslaughter, Slager’s attorneys said.