Hung Jury: Baltimore Awaits New Trial in Freddie Gray Case

Prosecutors will decide whether to retry the case.

Right now, no new trial date is set for Officer William Porter one day after his closely watched case ends in a mistrial. Further, this case outcome is significant because it may be regarded as a bellwether for the remaining trials in the death of Freddie Gray, as well as other cases of police violence throughout the nation.

William Porter approaches the courthouse in Baltimore on November 30. All six maintain their innocence in connection with Gray’s death. She said more scheduling hearings will be held before there would be information on dates in a possible retrial of Porter.

“The first trial has demonstrated you can pick a jury in Baltimore city”, says Mr. Pettit.

Will Porter stand trial again? Options for the state could include granting Porter immunity in exchange for his testimony, trying to persuade the judge to postpone the other trials while retrying Porter or striking him from their witness list altogether.

Judge Barry Williams, who presided over the trial and is assigned to the trials for the five other officers charged in Gray’s death, will meet with attorneys in his chambers to determine how to proceed. “I urge everyone to remember that collectively, our reaction needs to be one of respect for our neighborhoods, and for the residents and businesses of our city”, she said”.

A defense attorney wouldn’t comment about the mistrial, saying he was subject to a court gag order. Porter’s lawyers have previously called for the trial to be moved outside city limits, but they have been denied those requests. The decision was made yesterday, December 16, and the Baltimore Sun gave full details later that night. Approximately five percent of all the criminal cases that are tried in the country result in hung juries.

Some legal analysts have said the deadlocked jury will present hard questions for prosecutors.

“We are not at all upset with them and neither should the public be upset”, Shipley said Wednesday.

“People had negative views of police”, Porter said.

“The case is emblematic of a bigger issue: In the wake of scandal, the bureaucrats roll out an official police department that doesn’t really exist”, said Eugene O’Donnell, a former officer who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in NY.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was in court when the mistrial was declared and looked visibly upset.

“You’re not seeing less willingness of prosecutors bringing these cases”.

Prosecutors now have major strategic decisions to make.

“Hung juries are not unusual. He could be forced to testify”, Alperstein told CNN.

Officer Mark Gladhill testified that he had never belted a prisoner, and couldn’t recall any of his emergency medical training, let alone what he should do when prisoners struggle to breathe. His neighbors said it can be safer to run from police than risk interacting with them at all. “We wanted victory in the sense that officers can’t get away with killing someone”. “It’s not”, he told reporters.

“This is just a temporary bump on the road to justice”, Murphy said during a news conference after the mistrial was announced.

“We will not, we can not be defined by the unrest of the spring”, the mayor said.

“This is a tough case, when we talk about nonfeasance instead of malfeasance”, he says.

Gray, 25, died April 19, seven days after he was arrested for fleeing from officers.

“Freddie Gray went into the van healthy and he came out of the van dead”, said prosecutor Janice Bledsoe in her closing argument, according to The Associated Press.

The prosecution also argued that by failing to strap Gray in, as department policy dictated, Porter was at fault.