Gray was taken into custody from the street and provided with careless treatment from all six officers. Often prosecutors have been able to settle out of court by paying victims’ families due to mistreatment.
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In the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood where Gray was arrested and with a mural of his memory behind her, Mosby announced she will not try the three remaining cases surrounding Gray’s death, saying the deck was stacked against her.
More than a year ago, Mosby stood on her city’s courthouse steps and announced charges against the officers.
He said: “It was disgraceful what she did and the way she did it”.
Ms Mosby added: “We’ve all borne witness to an inherent bias that is a direct result of when police police themselves”. Problems with the case – which some say shouldn’t have been prosecuted at all – and how the state handled it became more apparent with each passing trial.
“These officers were humiliated”, attorney Michael Glass, who represents Porter and White, he told NBC News.
“We do not believe that Freddie Gray killed himself”, she said.
In a fiery defense of her case, prosecutor Marilyn Mosby blamed police for an investigation that failed to hold anyone accountable for the death of Gray, a young black man. “Among others, this will be proof that the charges were not warranted in the first place”, he said.
Grays stepfather, Richard Shipley, said the family is not pleased and is planning action. Mosby’s office based its approach, in part, on what it hoped would be the cumulative momentum of convictions in earlier cases with less serious offenses, building toward stronger cases against the officers charged with the most serious crimes. “She had her own agenda”. “I will fight for a fair and equal justice system for all, so that what happened to Freddie Gray never happens to another person”. Our American criminal justice system has run its course, and today’s decision by State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is a wise one that will undoubtedly help Baltimore to continue to heal. “It gets it right”.
Batts led Baltimore police from the fall of 2012 until Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake fired him in July 2015 amid a surge in city homicides that followed weeks of criticism from the police union over his handling of the city’s riots two months before. She said, “It’s something that I’ve been grappling with for some time”.
Should criminal cases involving police be tried by an independent body? The reason officers did not put Gray in a seat belt was to punish him for making a scene during his arrest.
Marc Zayon, Nero’s attorney, said Mosby had “spun a false narrative” in her prosecution of the officers with “no evidence that there was any wrongdoing”.
“(The prosecution) applied that theory to all of these officers and the judge in each of the last three verdicts decided that they did not present any evidence to show that they were criminally liable”, Burns said.
Freddie Gray died of a severe spinal injury in April of 2015. Mosby had promised “justice” for Gray’s death, which highlighted the inequalities experienced by black communities in the country.
Gloria Darden spoke Wednesday after prosecutors said they were dropping the charges against the officers awaiting trial in her son’s death.
In addition to Miller, Sgt. Alicia White was also facing trial.
A judge had previously acquitted three of the six officers who had been involved, which included the van driver and the highest ranking officer of those involved. The other trial ended in a mistrial.
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While the criminal cases are closed against the officers, CNN reports that they still face administrative reviews and possible discipline. But when officers attempted to remove Gray from the van, he was found no longer breathing appearing to have suffered from a cardiac arrest according to responding medics.
