Louisiana’s Supreme Court will decide whether the man who killed former NFL running back Joe McKnight in 2016 can be tried again for murder after his conviction on a lesser charge was overturned, the Associated Press reports.
Ronald Gasser shot McKnight in a road rage killing. Prosecutors argued Gasser was the aggressor, while his attorneys argued he shot McKnight in self-defense.
Authorities in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson Parish originally charged Gasser with second-degree murder. The jury instead convicted Gasser of manslaughter.
That verdict was overturned by a United States Supreme Court ruling in 2020 that outlawed split-jury verdicts. The jury in Gasser’s trial convicted him in a 10-2 vote.
A state district judge in Gretna ruled, and a state appellate panel agreed in a 2-1 ruling, that trying Gasser again on the murder charge would violate his constitutional protection against double jeopardy.
The Louisiana Supreme Court has not yet set a date to hear arguments.
McKnight played three seasons for the Jets and one with the Chiefs.
