HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A judge has allowed the body cam footage from William Darby, the former Huntsville police officer convicted of murder in the death of Jeffery Parker in 2018, to be released.
Martin Weinberg, Parker family attorney, said, “This is a big day for transparency and accountability. Overwhelming we are ecstatic that it’s being released. We understand it’s going to be graphic, but our client wanted this to be released and you know, overwhelmingly."
However, soon after the decision, the City of Huntsville filed an objection.
Weinberg explained, "In this particular case, they’ve been retained to represent Officer Darby in the civil case. So, that was unique to us and our position was, Darby’s criminal attorney didn’t have a problem with it. Well, the civil attorney comes in and says oh, we represent the city. So it’s a little confusing, but I just want to make that point.”
Weinberg believes the public release of body camera video may set precedence for the future.
“It’s not something that’s necessarily been ruled on before, but we’ve seen in other cases, so, if they know this is something we’re coming, maybe they’ll a different approach in terms of saying ‘hey, we want to be accountable’. We want to show transparency. We want to know what folks want to know where their money is - we hope that’s what’ll happen.”
READ: Response to Open Records request. Neither the prosecution or the defense objected to the release of the footage.
READ: City of Huntsville objection to release of footage