Commissioner Kevin Davis gave his Baltimore police force an A+ on Thursday for how it handled the protests after a mistrial was declared Wednesday in the case against Officer William G. Porter and said protesters shared credit for the high mark.
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Amy Dillard, a Baltimore law professor, told AFP: “I presume there will be another trial”.
They met in the chambers of Judge Barry Williams to talk about what comes next. After Gray’s death, protests erupted in Baltimore, as well as in solidarity in other American cities. Such was the case involving William Porter, the black police officer who drove the police auto in which Freddie Gray’s neck was allegedly broken, causing him to die during a rough ride to the police station.
Porter, 26, grew up in east Baltimore.
“The prosecution can retry this case”, said Attorney J. Wyndal Gordon. Some in the city peacefully protested the decision, but the uproar was a far cry from the unrest and rioting that marred the city for months after Gray’s death in police custody sparked public outrage. Two demonstrators were arrested outside the courthouse. “And every time the state pushes a trial back, the trial could be dismissed outright”, Gray said. Porter has maintained his innocence throughout the case.
These recent developments are a setback for Baltimore County State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby in her efforts to bring justice to Gray’s family for the acts of these police officers, whose charges include murder and are scheduled for trial in January.
Prosecutors also argued that Porter could have prevented the injury by ensuring Gray was wearing a seat belt while he was in the van.
Porter was charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The Baltimore Sun reports that Porter had little to say when reached by phone Wednesday night.
Instead, Van Susteren maintained out of her 12 years’ experience in the D.C. courtroom a “deadlocked jury and a mistrial” means “a loss for the prosecution”.
Within minutes of his mistrial ruling, a phalanx of uniformed officers surrounded the courthouse.
Colbert says that unless prosecutors are determined to retry Porter, they’d likely prefer a plea bargain over granting him immunity from prosecution. If Porter had been convicted, the state planned to call him as a witness against Caesar Goodson, the van driver, whom Porter claimed to have told about Gray’s request for medical aid. Porter told the van’s driver and a supervisor that Gray had asked for aid but none was summoned, according to testimony.
But, he said, the hung jury was a loss for prosecutors and Mosby might have to rethink her strategy in the future trials of the officers involved in Gray’s death. His trial concluded; and for three days (Monday through Wednesday), jurors could not reach a decision as to Porter’s guilt in the manslaughter case.
“A hung jury is a defeat for the prosecution, especially when they needed Porter to make some of these other cases”, Toobin said. They step away just enough in the video to reveal the young man laying on his back as he is manhandled by the deputies. Those meetings could affect trials for the other five officers charged.
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Defense attorneys could seek again to have Porter’s trial moved out of Baltimore. It is now up to prosecutors to decide whether Porter should be retried with another jury at a later date. That could create the notion that there is something wrong with the prosecutors’ case.
