“It’s not”, Murphy told reporters earlier in the day.
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The streets of Baltimore were calm overnight Wednesday as activists urged peace and healing after the announcement of a mistrial in the trial of police officer William Porter.
The stepfather of Freddie Gray called for calm Wednesday after a judge declared a mistrial for the police officer charged in Gray’s death.
The death and its aftermath followed the police killings of black men in cities including Ferguson, Missouri, and NY, which also sparked protests, helping to spark the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement. All six maintain their innocence in connection with Gray’s death. But if there is a pending case against Officer Porter during another officer’s trial, prosecutors would most likely be unable to call him to the stand.
“I hope the world sees that not all places are transparent and Baltimore is not the way it was conveyed”, one marcher said.
Will Porter stand trial again? Prosecutors had scheduled Porter’s as the first trial to allow him to be a witness against Goodson and a supervisor.
Essentially, the prosecution needed to persuade the jury of two things: That Porter either meant Gray harm or was recklessly negligent in his interactions with Gray.
As reported by Reuters, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams is set to meet with prosecutors and defense lawyers from the Gray case in order to arrange a new trial date.
But the jury on Wednesday said it could not reach a verdict in the first trial of officer William Porter, and the judge declared a mistrial. She says people understand the right to protest, but they also respect “the sanctity of our communities and the value of our communities”.
The prosecution must decide if they want to seek another trial or offer him a possible plea agreement.
The city settled in 2010 for $870,000, agreed to retrain officers and publicly rejected zero-tolerance policing, but complaints continued: A Baltimore Sun investigation previous year revealed the city had paid roughly $5.7 million in police brutality settlements, involving 102 instances of excessive force, since 2011.
Charge Murphy, a lawyer for Gray’s family, gave a comparable appraisal to correspondents.
Porter’s defense said the opposite. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell she appreciated the jury’s efforts and was grateful that the “vast majority” of residents respected their decision. “They did the best that they could”, Shipley said.
The jury in the first Freddie Gray case heard more than 20 witnesses, examined 100 pieces of evidence and deliberated for 16 hours but could not reach a verdict, leaving an anxious and tired Baltimore in limbo. “If we are calm, you should be calm too”.
The police union said Porter and his attorneys will continue to press for his acquittal.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was in court when the mistrial was declared and looked visibly upset. “Now there are lots of strategic decisions ahead”.
“When you have the rare instance of a prosecution against a police officer based on his failure to protect a prisoner, some people on the jury may have a more hard time with holding the officer responsible”, he says.
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Prosecutors are in “serious trouble”, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said. But because Porter’s attorneys maintained that he was trying to help Gray, the question of intent came down to the prosecution’s word against Porters.
