Jury deliberations began Monday afternoon and resumed Tuesday.
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The jury sent a note to Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams on Tuesday afternoon after about nine hours of deliberations over two days in the trial of Officer William Porter.
The mayor says business should continue as usual and people must respect the jury’s decision in Officer William Porter’s trial.
With that in mind, city schools CEO Gregory Thornton issued a memo to parents this week saying schools will use the “situation” to mentor students in “appropriate ways to express dissent” without violence.
The defense also asked for a change of venue and to voir dire the jury after city schools sent home the letter. They also received computer speakers to improve the sound quality of recordings in evidence, including Porter’s videotaped interview with Baltimore police detectives, police radio transmissions on the day Gray was arrested and cellphone videos made at two of the wagon’s six stops.
A Baltimore jury on Monday began deliberating the fate of Porter, the first of six officers charged in Gray’s death to stand trial. The jury has not been sequestered, but they have been warned not to read news articles about the case or talk about it with anyone other than fellow jurors during deliberations. He told them to keep deliberating.
Prosecutors say Officer Porter ignored Gray’s pleas for medical help and failed to seatbelt him in the van.
Smith said “every citizen of Baltimore probably has an expectation for us to be prepared for any scenario”, and that’s why the support of the outside agencies has been called in ahead of the verdict in Porter’s trial.
Porter conceded that Gray asked for medical help during stop four, but said he did not call a medic because Gray didn’t appear to be injured and didn’t articulate what was wrong.
The judge denied the jury’s request of the interview transcript, saying the transcript is not evidence, just the tape.
Hogan spoke on WBAL’s C4 show on Tuesday as jurors began their second day of deliberations in the trial of Officer William Porter, the first of six officers being tried in connection with Gray’s death. Witherspoon, president of the Baltimore chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, said he wants to see Porter and the other officers “convicted on all charges, fired from the city payroll so that the family of Freddie Gray isn’t paying their salaries and jailed beside the people they’ve arrested”.
Defense attorney William Murtha, during his closing arguments, went through all of the witnesses who testified during the trial and said the state didn’t meet its burden to prove its case, citing “the absence of evidence in this case, the absence of real evidence”.
Porter claims he had asked for help but his superiors did not respond.
Dickerson says the school system took similar steps in the spring, when unrest broke out in the city after Gray’s death.
He’s the first of six officers to stand trial on charges stemming from Gray’s arrest and death from a broken neck. He also faces charges of assault, endangerment and misconduct. Less than 30 minutes later, Gray was found unconscious after he suffered a catastrophic spinal injury in the back of a police van.
Porter was not the transporting officer in Gray’s case.
“‘I need a medic, ‘” the prosecutor said, quoting Gray.
Fearing a repeat of the April riots and unrest that followed Gray’s funeral if Porter is acquitted, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, cancelled all leave for officers this week.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the city opened an emergency operations center Monday morning as a precaution.
On Friday, Porter’s mother, Helena, described him as “a nice (and) honest guy”.
“Don’t fall for that”, countered Porter’s attorney Joseph Murtha. He was put in a transport van, shackled and handcuffed, but was not secured by a seat belt despite department policy to do so. In any case, the van detoured again to put another prisoner in a separate compartment before Gray finally arrived at the station in critical condition.
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“Whether you agree or whether you disagree with the jury’s ultimate verdict, our reaction has to be one of respect in Baltimore’s neighborhoods”, she said.
