Gray’s family received a $6.4 million settlement from the city. The first, William Porter, saw his trial end in December with a hung jury, and until Wednesday, prosecutors had vowed to retry him.
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Prosecutors and defense attorneys quickly left the courtroom without commenting, but both sides planned news conferences later Wednesday. “She should be held accountable”. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said, “To those who engage in violence, brutality, and racism let me be clear: There is no place in the Baltimore Police Department for you”.
The head of the police union in Baltimore says justice has been served after prosecutors chose to drop the remaining charges against three officers awaiting trial. At the Republican National Convention last week, audience members cheered as Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke criticized the “malicious prosecution of activist State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby”.
Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police President Gene Ryan called Mosby’s accusations “outrageous” and “simply not true”. “My office has never wavered in our commitment to seeking justice on his behalf”, Mosby said.
Mosby said the case has shown that the judicial system is in need of reform.
The 25-year-old Gray, who was black, died a week later.
Officers Brian Rice, Edward Nero, and Caesar Goodson were all acquitted in bench trials earlier this year.
Three of the officers who were charged are white and three are black.
Tessa Hill-Aston said Wednesday that she thinks the state’s attorney’s office did a “remarkable job”. She says she wanted the remaining officers to continue going through the legal process, but that she understands the decision.
More recently, federal prosecutors launched a civil rights investigation into the shooting of a black man by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Minnesota officials began a probe into a fatal shooting of a black motorist outside St. Paul.
In general, she reports, prosecutors have been facing pressure after so many trials ended without a conviction.
She announced the charges in a surprise news conference on the steps of the War Memorial in Baltimore, one day after the police department completed its own investigation into whether officers acted improperly.
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Gray died from spinal injuries sustained while in police custody. “We do not believe that Freddie Gray killed himself. I think a message has been sent by our state’s attorney that she treasures every life, that she values every person”. He says several times that he needs medical care during the approximately 44-minute ride to a police district station. It fueled debate over whether police use excessive force against African-Americans. At the time she drew praise from some who admired how swiftly she took on the case, and criticism from others who said there wasn’t enough evidence to convict the officers. Officer Miller was one of the officers on bicycle patrol who pursued Gray and put him in a restraining technique called a “leg lace” before he was thrown in the back of the wagon.
