Changes need to begin at the hiring process, says Professor Chavis-Simmons. The mayor has taken on a prominent role at the podium during the party’s convention in Philadelphia. A mistrial was declared for a fourth officer when a jury deadlocked, and he had been scheduled for a retrial until his charges were dropped Wednesday. As a result, she refused to answer questions Wednesday.
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Marilyn Mosby, State’s Attorney for Baltimore. At Wednesday’s hearing Miller’s defense attorneys planned to put prosecutors on the stand to probe whether there were improper communications.
A woman walks past a mural of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Internal investigations, with the help of outside police agencies, are underway.
Schatzow affirmed that finding, saying the video shows Gray lift his head four to five inches off of the ground while being held down by officers, and supporting his weight as he was placed into the van.
The full City Council will take up the spending next month.
The startling move was an apparent acknowledgment of the unlikelihood of a conviction following the acquittals of three other officers on similar and more serious charges by Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams, who was expected to preside over the remaining trials as well. “She should be held accountable”. And the news conference that she had where they were guilty before anybody even knew the facts.
Mosby’s supporters described the prosecutor as courageous for taking on the police and said her decision accelerated the push for reforms in police tactics, oversight and management.
“Justice has been done”, said Gene Ryan, president of FOP Lodge 3, which represents city police officers.
Davis said the decision to drop the remaining cases was a wise and thoughtful one.
“The state attorney simply could not accept the evidence that was presented”, Ryan said. The black community should be mad at its own for all the suffering the criminal element does to the law abiding people of the community! Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and many Baltimore residents expressed their surprise and anger, while supporters of the police commended the decision. “The question is whether neighborhoods that don’t look like Sandtown will still be responsive to her message”, he said. Three officers had been acquitted by a judge. In Mosby’s view, the police and the judge cooperated in subverting her noble quest for justice on behalf of Freddie Gray, about which she admits no errors and harbors no regrets.
“I think she ought to prosecute herself”.
Was she right to drop the charges? Gray’s death was a tragic accident, not a prosecutable homicide.
Gray’s mother, Gloria Darden, stood by Mosby, saying police lied.
Freddie Gray died of a severe spinal injury in April of 2015. Three of the officers involved in Gray’s arrest are black, as was the judge who oversaw the trials. Colbert said police officers and their unions often expect different treatment from the legal system than regular citizens get. Officers Edward Nero, Caesar Goodson Jr. and Lt. Brian Rice were all acquitted earlier this year. He said officers were justified in pursuing Gray.
Three of the officers have filed lawsuits against Mosby. While some Baltimore attorneys believe justice has been served for Goodson, justice has been dismantled for Gray’s family.
Naturally, this sparked a national outrage amongst African Americans across the country, who were already upset about several other police brutality incidents involving unarmed African American men.
Prosecutors were scheduled to start the trial of Officer Garrett Miller on Wednesday when they chose to drop all charges against him as well as Officer William Porter and Sgt. Alicia White in the case. Prosecutors say Miller illegally arrested Gray without probable cause, and was criminally negligent when he failed to buckle Gray into a seatbelt.
Miller testified against his colleagues at previous trials and will be tried by two prosecutors new to the case.
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This comes one day after the charges were dropped against all the officers who still faced trial in connection with Gray’s death.
