Tag: Freddie Gray

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Marilyn Mosby: A Woman Without Shame

 

When I learned on Wednesday morning that prosecutors in Baltimore had elected to drop all charges against the remaining defendants in the Freddie Gray case, I felt a great sense of relief for the three police officers who had not yet been acquitted. I phrase it that way intentionally because, after the third acquittal in the case (and a hung jury), it should have been clear to anyone – even State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby – that the state had no chance of convicting any of the officers on even a single charge. In June of last year, I predicted such an outcome here on Ricochet, and I also predicted that the officers would later prevail in a civil case against Mosby. Now that the first element of that scenario has come to pass, in due course we’ll find out about the second.

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Will Marilyn Mosby See the Light?

 

marilyn-mosby3State’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.

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http://wqad.com/2016/05/23/judge-praised-for-finding-second-baltimore-police-officer-not-guilty-in-freddie-grays-death/ Freddie Gray’s family declare themselves satisfied with the conduct of the trial and willing to accept the verdict.  Preview Open

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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Verdict at 10:30 AM Monday, Riot to Follow

 
FreddieGrayPrecinctProtest
Baltimore Protest in April 2015by Veggies – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Closing arguments concluded yesterday in the Baltimore trial of Officer Edward Nero, one of the six officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray. Judge Barry Williams will deliver his verdict Monday morning at 10:30 AM. I stand by my prediction that neither Nero nor any of the others will be convicted of even a single charge. The case against them is a joke and would have been laughed out of court had it not been for the fraught politics of the entire affair. The first trial in the matter, that of Officer William Porter, ended in a mistrial last December when the jury could not agree on a verdict. Nero opted for a bench trial so, this time, there is no jury to persuade.

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Mistrial Declared in First Freddie Gray Trial in Baltimore

 

shutterstock_192819296Yesterday, a mistrial was declared in the trial of Baltimore police officer William Porter, the first of six officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray to go before a jury. Jurors announced they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the four counts against Porter: involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office.

I am on the record as saying that none of the accused officers would be convicted of any crime, and I am even more confident in this assertion now than I was when I first made it here on Ricochet back in June. Prosecutors felt their strongest case was against Porter, whom they hoped to convict and then bargain with on the sentence in exchange for his testimony against the other five defendants. The case should never have been heard in Baltimore, where pressure on jurors for a conviction was significant. If there was ever a case deserving of a change of venue, this was it. The fact that prosecutors couldn’t secure a conviction even under these circumstances does not bode will for their chances in the remaining trials.

There is a gag order in place, but soon enough word of the jury’s deliberations will leak out. My suspicion is that the jury was leaning for acquittal, but that some small minority insisted in holding out for guilty verdicts. Reasonable doubt was everywhere in the case against Porter, as it is in the case against the others. The entire case is a stain on the legal profession, and it’s heartbreaking to see William Porter and his five colleagues put through this ordeal for such nakedly political purposes. Shame on all who had a hand in this.

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. First Baltimore, Now Los Angeles?

 

shutterstock_140272873Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is as obtuse as ever. Addressing the sharp decline in arrest numbers from the Baltimore Police Department, Rawlings-Blake told a reporter for the Baltimore Sun she expects the officers to step it up. “We know there are some officers who we have some concerns about,” she said. “I’ve been very clear with the FOP that their officers, as long as they plan to cash their paycheck, my expectation is that they work.”

And the officers’ expectation is that if they perform their duties within the law, they won’t be arrested and charged with crimes so as to appease a riotous mob. Or at least this was their expectation. Now, since the arrest and indictment of the six officers implicated in the death of Freddie Gray, Baltimore cops live with fear that they could be next and are conducting themselves accordingly.

The mayor claims the officers aren’t working. In fact, they are: they’re merely adjusting their work habits so as to bring them into alignment with the current political climate. They’re out on patrol in the same numbers and manning all the posts they were before Freddie Gray’s death, but they’re being far less proactive in their efforts to reduce crime. And who can blame them? Imagine yourself as a Baltimore cop. You are driving the streets in your patrol car when you see someone you know to have a violent history. You see him tug at his shirt or adjust his pants or change his gait in a certain way, any of which might indicate he is carrying a gun. Do you get out of your car and investigate with the knowledge that — if he doesn’t shoot you — he’ll run away and force you to chase him?

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. The Tired Baltimore Narrative

 

BlackLivesWe know well from the media the tired Baltimore narrative: widespread prejudice and callous indifference, now and in the distant past, built the socio-economic bomb that racist police gratuitously set off, leading to regrettable — but in a sense also justifiable — “rebellions” and “uprisings” marked by cri de coeur looting and arson. “Riot” and “thug” are coded racist words, at least if not spoken by the mayor of Baltimore and the President of the United States. The narrative is usually punctuated by melodramatic warnings from elites of “more to come.” I suppose the subtext is that unless, in our era of $18 trillion in federal debt, more federal money is borrowed and redirected into Baltimore—or unless more resources are devoted to the often personal or careerist agendas of elite critics—then the violence of the underclass may well become endemic and perhaps hit the Upper West Side, Palo Alto or Chevy Chase (though perhaps not Utah, Montana or Texas).

What is startling about this now common story are its glaring self-contradictions. Most of the elite critics, from Marc Lamont Hill to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who blast American society for creating Baltimores never quite explain what it was about their own paths to their success—Intact family? Legitimacy? Mentors? Religion? No criminal record? Drug and handgun avoidance? Generous federal and state programs?—that separated them from the underclass in the street.

Statistics prove irrelevant or worse. It is racist to suggest that if less than 5% of the population, comprised of inner-city African-American males between 15-40 years of age, were not responsible for about half of American crime, then these tragically explosive confrontations with the overworked police might be less common. Nor is there any interest in exploring why Baltimore schools are among the highest-funded in the nation and yet serve their students so poorly. Do the hosts at MSNBC believe that should Baltimore exceed New York in per capita expenditures superb education would follow? Do they really think that stricter gun control of legal and licensed weapons in the suburbs will translate into fewer illegal and unlicensed handguns in the inner city?

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Back to “Normal” in Baltimore

 

MosbyBaltimoreI have a new column up today over at PJ Media in which I maintain that the “return to normal” in Baltimore is not necessarily a thing to be celebrated. As is often the case, no sooner had I sent the piece off to my editor than I thought of something I should have added. In the column, I make the prediction that when the case has run its course none of the six officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray will stand convicted of even a single charge, and that they will prevail in a civil lawsuit against Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

Her case against the officers is feeble at best, but this does not mean the officers will have any easy time of things when they have their day in court. I have no doubt that in Baltimore there can be found any number of judges who, like Ms. Mosby, are more committed to the cause of “social justice” than to the impartial application of actual justice. Should the case come before one of these judges – and is there any doubt that Mosby will attempt to steer it that way? – the officers may find themselves in for a rough go. But, at some point along the way, the case will come before appellate judges at the state or federal level, men and women who, one must hope, will not abide Mosby’s campaign to use the courts as a vehicle for mob revenge.

As I say in the column, the riots in Baltimore haven’t ended, they’ve only been postponed.

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. The Libertarian Podcast: Baltimore, Law Enforcement, and Race

 

You won’t want to miss this installment of The Libertarian podcast. Professor Epstein is on his A-game as we review the recent riots in Baltimore, discuss whether criminal charges were brought too hastily against the police involved in Freddie Gray’s death, work through Hillary Clinton’s critique of “the age of mass incarceration,” and ponder what both law enforcement and African-American political leaders can do to ratchet down the tensions. Listen in below or subscribe to The Libertarian through iTunes or your favorite podcasting app.

Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. Alan Dershowitz Reacts To Marilyn Mosby’s Charges

 

Did Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby overreach in quickly charging of the police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray? Will a judge remove her from prosecuting the officers based on her additional politically-tinged activist comments at the end of her news conference?