Jury selection for the first police officer to go to trial in Freddie Gray’ s death began Monday with a judge questioning potential jurors about their knowledge of the explosive case, which led to widespread protests and rioting and added fuel to the Black Lives Matter movement.
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The officer maintains that he wasn’t sure if Gray was faking his injuries on April 12, the day Gray was taken into police custody.
But Judge Barry Williams has refused, despite the likelihood of protests around the Baltimore courthouse where the trial is being held.
William Porter, 26, stands accused of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and assault in the death of the 25-year-old black man. Porter, himself black, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He is accused of checking on Gray during several stops the van made during its 45-minute trip from the Gilmor Homes in Sandtown-Winchester, where Gray was arrested, to the Western District station house, where officers found Gray unresponsive and he was taken to a hospital. The verdict could have immediate consequences for Baltimore: An acquittal could mean protests and potentially more unrest, while a conviction could shake the city’s already distressed police department.
Police Commissioner Kevin Davis says “everything is at stake”. More than half of the people being interviewed, said they had been victims of a crime or incidents with police.
Gray died in April from a severe spinal injury while in custody after being arrested when he fled from the police.
Gray’s death led to two days of rioting and a week long state of emergency in Baltimore City in late April.
At the end of Monday’s proceedings, Williams ordered all of the potential jurors to “not discuss anything at all” from the proceedings, whether they had received instructions relieving them of their juror duties or not.
Porter’s lawyers have repeatedly asked to have the trial moved out of the city, most recently at a final round of motion hearings last week based on a new study showing that residents of Baltimore who make up the jury pool have more negative views of police than those in the surrounding counties.
Williams read aloud more than 200 names of possible witnesses, a list that included more than 100 Baltimore police officers, lawyers, and prosecutors. Furthermore, it was said that Mr. Gray tried to convince the officers that he needed medical attention.
The trial comes less than a week after authorities in Chicago released a graphic video showing a white police officer firing 16 shots into a black teenager.
Officer William Porter entered the courthouse through a side entrance, which was near enough for him to clearly hear and see the demonstrators. Porter was called for backup after the young man was arrested and placed in handcuffs and leg irons in a police van, NPR reported.
Defense attorneys, however, have said prosecutors rushed to judgment in filing charges against Porter and his colleagues.
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Porter and the other five officers have remained suspended from their jobs without pay while awaiting trial. I know what’s important: “that we have order in the city”, she said.
