A police officer who fatally shot an elderly aged-care resident with his Taser could become one of the few members of the force to be jailed over a death on duty.

Former senior constable Kristian James Samuel White is due to be sentenced for the tragic incident in the southern NSW town of Cooma that led to the death of 95-year-old Clare Nowland.

On Friday, he will learn whether he is jailed for her manslaughter after firing his weapon at her inside the Yallambee Lodge aged-care home in the early hours of May 17, 2023.

Mrs Nowland was holding a knife while using a walking frame and had been ignoring attempts by staff to disarm her.

The 35-year-old officer said “nah, bugger it” before firing the Taser’s barbs at her chest, causing her to fall and strike her head.

The great-grandmother suffered a bleed on the brain and died in hospital a week later.

UNSW criminology expert Helen Gibbon said it was very rare for Australian police officers to face prosecution for killing a person in the line of duty.

“It is even rarer for police to be convicted of an offence in relation to a killing,” she told AAP.

Prosecutors have pushed NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison to jail White for the crime, but the ex-officer’s lawyers have argued he only made an error of judgment and should receive a more lenient sentence.

In deciding to pursue a criminal case against an officer, the Director of Public Prosecutions would already take into account that police worked in difficult, often volatile circumstances, Associate Professor Gibbon noted.

“There must also be a willingness on behalf of a prosecuting agency to prosecute a police officer who kills a person in the course of carrying out their duties, as well as a willingness on the part of juries to convict a police officer,” she said.

“Historically, such willingness has been lacking.”

It was difficult to predict how Justice Harrison would rule as there were factors pulling towards both a jail term and a sentence served in the community, Assoc Prof Gibbon added.

In Queensland, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was acquitted of manslaughter in 2007 over the death of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island.

In 2022 in the Northern Territory, Constable Zachary Rolfe stood trial for the murder of Kumanjayi Walker but was also acquitted.

In NSW in 2023, Sergeant Matthew Kelly was acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of negligent driving occasioning death after the fatal police pursuit of Jack Roberts.

White was removed from the police force in December, less than a week after a jury found him guilty of Mrs Nowland’s manslaughter.

He has launched legal action for a review of that decision.