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Will Marilyn Mosby See the Light?
State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby must be grateful for the gag order that prevents her from talking about the Freddie Gray case. So far, her office has tried three of the six officers accused in Gray’s death, resulting in two acquittals and one hung jury. What a relief it must be to not face reporters after yet another rebuke. On Thursday, Officer Caesar Goodson — who drove the police transport van in which Gray suffered his fatal injury — was acquitted of all charges after a bench trial before Circuit Judge Barry Williams.
And Judge Williams didn’t merely acquit Goodson. In the verdict he handed down, he eviscerated the State’s case against Goodson and, by extension, did so to the cases yet to be tried. (Officer William Porter, the first of the six to go to trial, is scheduled to be retried after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Officer Edward Nero was acquitted in a bench trial last month.) As to every count against Goodson, Williams said the State had failed to meet its burden, citing the paucity or utter lack of incriminating evidence. Given his rationale, it’s a wonder the judge did not grant the defense’s motion for acquittal at the conclusion of the State’s case.
I predicted a year ago here on Ricochet that none of the six officers would be convicted of a single charge; that outcome is even more likely now than it was then. It remains to be seen how far Mosby will try to ride this obviously lame horse. The case against all six officers was a sham from the start, but one could argue that Goodson, who — as the driver of the van — had custody of Gray when the injury occurred, was the most culpable. With his acquittal, it must be obvious even to Mosby that there is no hope for a conviction against the officers whose role in Gray’s death was even more tangential than Goodson’s.
Mosby, a woman of obvious ambition, must now weigh which course of action will be least damaging to her future political prospects. Will she admit defeat now and dismiss the charges against the remaining defendants, or will she press on and subject herself and her prosecutors to the humiliation of four more acquittals? It’s a pity that her decision will have more to do with politics than with the law, but then again, it was politics and not the law that led her to bring the case to begin with. She will reap what she has sown, but it’s a pity that the lives of six officers had to be upended in the process.
Published in Policing
Social Justice Warriors always double down. Expect three more trials and at least one retrial.
I think she will drop the remaining cases. They called her bluff and she lost. Her political future will be damaged not because she is an unprincipled political hack who did real harm to her city (it’s Baltimore) but because she lost.
I have not followed this much, but my recollection is that the prosecution was going to allege that the officers handcuffed the victim, put him in the back of a van in such a way that he could not brace himself with his handcuffed hands, and then the driver drove the van around in such a way as the victim was likely to slide around and injure himself (a “rough ride” if I remember).
I can understand the lack of a conviction (especially for murder), however is a broken neck while in police custody really just a freak accident in this case?
She will have a position in the Clinton cabinet.
The officers lives have been indeed turned upside down and every time something like this happens it makes decent people consider against a career in law enforcement.
This is malicious prosecution, no less so than the Duke Lacrosse lads and the Congressman from Texas, Tom DeLay. The cops should sue her. Hell, the city should sue her. The Maryland bar should investigate.
This woman has no business practicing law or representing the public interest.
But that’s true of so many pols…
Agree. She will prosecute them all and ever time they are found not guilt will be an indictment of how corrupt the system is against blacks and why the BLM movement and every black civil rights movement must keep up the fight till all blacks can do what the want with out effort or repercussions.
it didn’t help the suspect was throwing himself into the walls.
The video demonstrated the ride was not in any way a “rough ride”
There was also testimony from another prisoner in the van that Gray seemed to be intentionally banging his head against the side of the van. And, I believe, there was no evidence that the driver was reckless or intentionally vigorous in his driving.
Will Marilyn Mosby see the dark of a jail cell?
Figures…..
The officers were only charged to prevent another constructive and productive riot.
Now Mosby must “reap what you sow” and watch and listen helplessly as her career ends with the death knell of unprincipled opportunism.
Good riddance.
Maybe she can get a gig at CNN as a consultant.
Jack,
This is an absurdity in the age of identity politics. You can’t be DA of just the black people of Baltimore. You can only be DA of the City of Baltimore. The police force is fully integrated. The claims of racism are preposterous. She has tied herself to an absurdity and the chickens are coming home to roost. The only sympathy I can have for her is that the AG & President of the US openly acted as if they were only representing black people in the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases. In such an atmosphere she was dragged into this by a mob of her own supporters.
Either she makes a clean break of some kind or she can be considered part of that mob.
Regards,
Jim
This will certainly be her desired trajectory. She is a political opportunist in stellar company with the like of the Clintons, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, et. al.
I can’t find the link in my history, but I read yesterday that she is supported by 3 out of 4 Baltimore residents. She is a full participant in the growing cultural chaos that saw Justice Sotomayor go full Black Live Matter in her recent SCOTUS dissent. Even if her career does not continue to include her current position, she is on the same sort of path that allowed Al “Kill-the-Jew!” Sharpton to a long and lucrative life in “public service.”
And just wait until Hillary puts a minority lesbian activist onto SCOTUS…
As a prosecutor myself, this kind of thing makes me cringe. It puts me on the defensive. I can’t believe that I do the same job as this woman.
The ethical obligation of a prosecutor is higher than any other attorney. It is an obligation to ensure that justice is done, whatever form justice takes . . . even if it means not filing, or even dismissing, a particular case.
And, the kind of “justice” we are talking about above is criminal justice, not social justice. It is not the place of prosecutors to do the latter.
Pretty damn Olde School, Dog. O would say all the way to “The Wrong Side of History.”
Will Marilyn Mosby See the Light?
No
Mosby’s performance proves the wisdom of the old baseball managers’ saw: If you appease the people in the bleachers, you’ll soon be joining them.
Her career is over. She tried to appease the rioters in the street. She’ll be on the street fairly soon herself.
If by “career” you mean “prosecutor,” then maybe. But her “carreer” is no more over than was Sharpton’s after Tawana Brawley.
I’m not so sure about that. No one wants to be humiliated for such an extended period. She looks like a fool either way, but a bigger one if she plays this out all the way through seven trials without a win.
You nailed it.
I can’t see her being elected state-wide in Maryland, but she would probably cruise to victory in some Baltimore-area congressional race. There are plenty like her in the House.
Reading the decisions of Judge Williams makes it clear that the States Attorney, Ms. Mosby has no case. His ruling’s in both cases contain not only the specifics of the law but he is sending a message as well. A message to the State’s Attorney’s office that you need to rethink what you are doing.
The message isn’t sinking in because the rumor is that Ms. Mosby might start “judge shopping” to keep Judge Williams from hearing the next case.
Ms. Mosby seems to have two problems. A problem for some elected state prosecutors is separating politics from facts in prosecutions. A second problem is incompetence. I suspect that there is a mixture of both in Ms. Mosby’s decision to keep rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Someone in Baltimore on the ground could probably speak better to the public mood. I think for the voters she seeks, a quixotic conviction quest serves her better. If you believe you are a victim of the society and forces outside your control, you want someone who will fight for you no matter what. She and her supporters subscribe to that narrative so perseverance is to her advantage. Reporters will not report the scathing rebuke of the judge so Democrat voters who are disquieted by the situation will vote with the vocal supporters of Mosby. Look at people like Fattah and Berry who are many times shader and were unquestionably supported by their districts. It’s not about the truth because the only “truth” that matters is the narrative.
She’ll do just fine politically. She’ll depict herself as the doughty justice seeker and a story will be spun that she was defeated by a conspiracy of tobacco chewing good ‘ol boys. You won’t recognize this story in a year.
Typical “white thinking.” And that’s not totally ironic.
You may think you are stating timeless, universal principles, but a look around the globe shows that the only places that believe what you wrote are, in fact, nations where whites predominate.
Worse, the people who think like Mosby now rule you, as this week’s SCOTUS decision to reinstitutionalize anti-American, anti-Constitutional and anti-egalitarian Affirmative Action makes crystal clear.
Just like some pigs are more equal than other pigs, some justice (social and racial) is more just than other justice.
Her constituents want it. My best guess is that she won’t disappoint her adoring fans. I predict that she goes for it on every one. Her interest in properly doing the job for which she was supposed to be elected was pretty much laid bare by her absolutely unforgivable remarks at the very beginning. As DD indicated, she threw ethics to the wind as quickly as she could find a microphone and a camera.
More likely, as Hilliary’s deputy AG for Civil Rights.
Jack & all,
If there ever were an advertisement to vote against Hillary Clinton the “threat” suggested above ought to be it.
Regards,
Jim