NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - December 9, 2010 - A federal jury on Thursday convicted three current or former New Orleans police officers but acquitted two others in the death of a man during Hurricane Katrina's chaotic aftermath.

The jury of seven women and five men on convicted former officer David Warren of manslaughter in the shooting death of 31-year-old Henry Glover outside a strip mall on September 2, 2005.

The jury also convicted Officer Gregory McRae of burning Glover's body in a car. Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann was acquitted of that charge.

Lt. Travis McCabe was convicted of writing a false report on the shooting. Former Lt. Robert Italiano was cleared of that charge.

A total of 20 current or former New Orleans police officers have been charged this year in a series of Justice Department civil rights investigations. The probe of Glover's death was the first of those cases to be tried.

All five of the officers charged in the Glover case testified during the trial, describing the grueling, dangerous conditions they endured after the August 29, 2005 storm, when thousands of desperate people were trapped in the flooded city.

Looting was rampant and bodies rotted on the streets for days because there was nowhere to take them, officers recalled. With lives on the line, the officers said they had no time to write reports or investigate anything but the most serious of crimes.

Prosecutors said Katrina can't excuse the officers' actions but may explain them. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracey Knight said in her opening statement that the storm lulled the officers into thinking "no one was watching and no one would care about Henry Glover."

"But they were wrong," she added.