The decision means no-one will be held criminally responsible for Freddie Gray’s death but prosecutors say the case has led to changes in Baltimore’s police department.
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Gray was a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken while he was handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained in the back of a police van in April 2015. Therefore, the state’s violence – what the medical examiner ruled a homicide – is justifiable under law. “This big task force they put together, they did not put together until after Gray’s death”. But now that the trial is officially over and the gag order lifted, the chief prosecutor did not mince words when she accused members of the BPD of escalating the “systemic and inherent complications” of trying police officers for crimes.
Social media exploded in the aftermath of the announcement, with #FreddieGray becoming a trending topic on Twitter.
Bates said Mosby’s office declined assistance that was offered by the Maryland State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Serving this week as secretary at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement the Baltimore Police Department will still complete an administrative review of each officer involved.
Was she right to drop the charges?
Mosby said without the help of an independent investigating agency and a say in whether the cases go before a judge or a jury, no matter how many times she tried these cases, the result would still be the same.
A woman walks past a mural of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.
But speaking afterwards, State Attorney Marilyn Mosby defended her decision to prosecute, saying she stood by her belief that Mr Gray’s death was a homicide.
After a brief court hearing, Mosby spoke in the West Baltimore neighborhood where Gray had been arrested and described her decision to drop the charges as “agonizing”. Rice brought suit on May 2, alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, and defamation, among other counts.
Marilyn Mosby speaks at a July 27, 2016 press conference about Freddie Gray’s death.
Lt. Gene Ryan, the FOP president, said “justice has been done”. Gray’s family lawyer, Billy Murphy, stated that the family’s goal to file charges failed to achieve the necessary consequences for, yet another case of police brutality in Baltimore. But with one news conference, Mosby did what other officials could not: Give black residents who routinely complained of discrimination from law enforcement the hope that justice may be coming. She said the charges she brought were not an indictment of the entire Baltimore Police Department, but she also broadly condemned the actions and testimony of some officers involved in Gray’s arrest or in the department’s investigation of the incident – alleging “consistent bias” at “every stage”. “She had her own agenda”, he said.
This month, the defense alleged in court filings that Michael Schatzow, the chief deputy state’s attorney, had improperly continued to discuss Miller’s case with the new prosecutors.
“Baltimore is struggling with a variety of issues that urban America is struggling with”, he says. “We also have to recognize that on May 1, 2015, that’s when the nightmare began for all these officers”.
He said the state’s attorney’s office had a “clean team” that was not exposed to the immunized testimony and a “filter team” ensuring the former wasn’t exposed to any evidence derived from that testimony. They are still subject to internal investigations. These individuals and officers were neutral.
Instead, Mosby blamed the lack of convictions on police who were uncooperative through the course of the investigation. Meanwhile, the city settled a $6.4 million civil claim with the Gray family. Miller was charged with second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.
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A retrial against Porter had been scheduled after a jury deadlocked in the case against him in December.
