Officer William Porter’s trial ended with a hung jury and mistrial. Burns said he expects the report to be released soon.
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When police are perceived as abusing their authority, as threats rather than allies, it increases the risk for the officers as well – whether it is from someone who deliberately sets out to kill or injure police or someone who doesn’t volunteer needed information to police because of the gulf between them.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has accused investigators in the Freddie Gray case against six officers of manufacturing evidence – an allegation that’s “poisoned” her relationship with city police amid a crime spike, columnist Chris White writes.
She walked to the lectern as people chanted “we’re with you”, and her remarks were punctuated by shouts of support. He also alleged that once an ambulance was called, it was slow to arrive at the scene. She said “obvious questions” weren’t asked during interrogations.
She also still stood by her original statement 14 months ago that she believes Gray’s death was a homicide.
He contended that Gray ran from police when they encountered him, because he and his friends planned to “re-up” to sell drugs that day.
“The prosecution of on-duty police officers in this country is surprisingly rare and blatantly wrought with systemic and inherent complications”, the Democratic prosecutor said.
Mosby explained why she and her office made the decision, which she said was a hard one. He rejected Mosby’s accusations that officers involved in the investigation were biased.
Sgt. Alicia D. White had been scheduled to go on trial October 13. Their attorneys have said they acted reasonably and professionally, and that Gray’s death was the result of a tragic accident. “It is the Baltimore city state’s attorney’s office that denied justice to the Gray family and to these officers”.
Not one of the police officers involved in Gray’s arrest and transporation to city jail will be punished in anyway, and all are free to return to the force.
After Wednesday’s decision, he said in a text message: “The dismissals are a reminder that the laws, practices and policies justify the actions of the police at all costs”.
“We have to let the criminal justice system speak for itself”, Bates said. “It gets it right”.
The judge ruled that although the officers may have exercised poor judgment, prosecutors failed to prove the officers tried to hurt Gray. “The typical officer, they’re not being given any true incentive to turn in an officer that they know or they see is doing something improper”. Officers worked 13,236 hours from January to May 2015, as the trial spanned from jury selection to sentencing.
Before Miller and White’s cases were dropped, Porter’s trial ended in a mistrial past year and Nero and Rice were acquitted. Three other officers were acquitted. They were filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland in 2015 in late April and early May around the time the officers were arrested. He was handcuffed and shackled when he was injured. To others, her office’s failure to secure a conviction is simply indicative of the grave challenges associated with prosecuting police, and the fact that she brought the charges in the first place should be celebrated as a slice of victory. At the time, the tense city was still under a curfew. She posed for magazine photos, sat for TV interviews and appeared onstage at a Prince concert held in Gray’s honor.
His death sparked civil unrest in Baltimore, and became part of a wider national debate on police brutality and the death of unarmed black men at the hands of police. Her comments came after prosecutors told a judge that they were dropping the remaining charges against three officers. The victim, judge, top prosecutor and mayor are all African-American.
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The decision from Baltimore’s state prosecutor now makes it unlikely that anyone will be punished for what was one of the most inflammatory deaths of unarmed black men blamed on police, fueling a nationwide protest movement.
