Baltimore

The verdicts are in.  Well, mostly they are.  The ones that count the most, the judicial verdicts, are in.  But public opinion's verdict still remains. 

Three of the indicted policemen have been acquitted by a judge in the death of Freddie Gray, who died after being put in a police van.  A fourth policeman's trial resulted in a mistrial.  Two trials remain.  Should those trials even go forward.

Legal observers who've paid close attention say that the prosecution has exhausted all its possible theories.  To try to the remaining defendants would be a waste of judicial resources.  Furthermore, it might expose the City of Baltimore, which has already paid the family of Freddie Gray $6.4M to settle any wrongful death cause of action, to further suits for wrongful prosecution, not to mention claims for back pay and attorneys' fees.

No one can ever know how Freddie Gray died.  There are those who want to believe that Mr. Gray's death was a result of negligent and reckless police behavior.  Others believe it was the result of a pre-existing condition. 

The trouble I have with the prosecutions is how they were fast-tracked, politically.  Much like the infamous Duke lacrosse team prosecution, it appears that the prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, was trying to make a name for herself by pandering to the public.  Calls are being made for an investigation of Ms. Mosby, given that reports indicate that she didn't provide a grand jury with the correct information when she sought an indictment for second degree murder against the driver of the police van in which Mr. Gray was transported and in which he died. 

Ms. Mosby started off on the wrong foot, declaring that she heard your call -- our time is now.  What investigation of a potential crime has to do with some group's time being now escapes me.  That she ultimately failed to obtain a single guilty verdict indicates that at best, she jumped the gun with the indictments and, at worst, knowingly prosecuted men she knew to be innocent simply to ingratiate herself with the public.

Much like the rush to judgment in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting, where even the Department of Justice set up a task force long before the autopsies were in, the Freddie Gray incident was used for political gain.  It also helped fuel the summer of assaults on policemen across the nation.  Certainly, other incidents stoked the flames, and certain of those incidents deserve greater scrutiny and punishment for the police involved.  Yet now, anytime a black man dies at the hands of the police, it's presumed that it was a wrongful death and justice must be obtained.

Prosecutors serve the people -- all the people -- and must strive to prove the truth.  They're not supposed to have an agenda and mold the facts and the law to support that agenda.  That's what Ms. Mosby appears to have done in the Freddie Gray case.  For as unfortunate and senseless Mr. Gray's death is, it's equally unfortunate and senseless that a prosecutor used the case to further her career at the expense of public servants and, in the end, accomplished nothing for the public or Mr. Gray's family.

Ms. Mosby should be referred to the state bar of Maryland to account for her actions.  In the future, prosecuting attorneys would do well to remember the names of Michael Nifong and Marilyn Mosby before they decide to get justice for someone who died in questionable circumstances and before they have all the evidence.

(c) 2016 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles