“The wheels of justice did begin to turn here in Baltimore”, Cummings, a Democrat, said on CNN’s “New Day”, pointing to the fact that Porter was getting what Cummings deemed a fair trial, with a diverse jury of his peers attempting to decide his fate.
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The judge will discuss a possible retrial with both sides in his chambers today.
Jurors deliberated for over 16 hours over the last three days and could not reach a verdict.
In the wake of Gray’s death, Rawlings-Blake had said she would not be running for re-election as mayor and had also fired the former police commissioner, Anthony W. Batts.
A protestor confronts deputies from Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office outside the courthouse in Ba …
I have a few thoughts about the case.
“Twelve Baltimore residents listened to the evidence presented and were unable to render a unanimous decision”, Rawlings-Blake said.
Makayla Gilliam-Price, an activist in Baltimore, stood in front of those remaining demonstrators and looked right into their eyes, trying to remind them why they were here.
Another group of protesters gathered in Gray’s neighborhood, near where a drug store was burned during the rioting, where they expressed disappointment at the outcome. “But I also want to be very, very clear about any potential disturbances in our city: we are prepared to respond…I urge everyone to remember that, collectively, our reaction needs to be one of respect”.
“If any of the officers get convicted, it will be a surprise to me”, Davis said, adding that he doesn’t think Mosby has been honest in her vow to prosecute the officers but was compelled to bring charges after the April unrest. This was an officer charged for what he did not do – not buckling someone into a seatbelt in the police van, not calling a medic when the detainee, Freddie Gray, recommended one. “How long does it take?” “There is no question now that the state can’t just proceed against Officer Goodson with Officer Porter unless they try Officer Porter first”, David Jaros, an assistant professor of law at the University of Baltimore, said.
Erika Alston, a West Baltimore community leader who founded Kids Safe Zone after the April riots, said she felt there was reasonable doubt that Porter committed manslaughter, but “it’s early”. Murphy won a multimillion-dollar settlement for Gray’s relatives before the trial began. The judge instructed them to keep deliberating.
“Isn’t the objective of the general orders and policies and procedures…to guide and mandate the discretion of an officer?”
Officer William Porter was with Gray during five of the six stops that the van made, and he did not buckle Gray in, according to prosecutors, ignoring police department guidelines. In the video, Gray could be seen being dragged into the van.
But as porter told the Baltimore Sun on Wednesday, “It’s not over yet”.
He said Gray told him he needed urgent medical care, but did not say why.
Porter told jurors he didn’t think Gray was injured when he lifted him from the van’s floor to the bench, and that buckling him in wasn’t his responsibility. Before he could, Gray was found unconscious in the back of the van. Prosecutors have not yet said whether they will retry Porter.
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The prosecution argued that by not strapping Gray in, and by failing to seek medical attention for Gray, Porter was responsible for his death.
