Baltimore awaits new trial date in policeman’s manslaughter trial

A Baltimore judge says there is a hung jury in the case of a police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray.

In a brief conversation Wednesday evening with The Baltimore Sun, Porter alluded to why: “It’s not over yet”.

But what happens next is anyone’s guess. Prosecutors will decide whether to retry the case. Others, such as the death of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, never even resulted in charges being brought against officers. Mr Murtha declined to comment.

One such rally occurred at the juvenile justice center, where protesters told reporters a 16-year-old named Melvin was being wrongly held. “We will fight for Freddie Gray”. “They don’t care about us”. “There is no question now that the state can’t just proceed against Officer Goodson with Officer Porter unless they try Officer Porter first”, David Jaros, an assistant professor of law at the University of Baltimore, said. “We are calm. You should be calm, too”.

The police union said Porter and his attorneys will continue to press for his acquittal.

Protests have remained peaceful, with some demonstrators shouting at law enforcement, saying they want another trial; they want convictions in these cases; indictments are not enough; a hung jury is not enough.

Lawyers will meet in the judge’s chambers Thursday to discuss dates for a possible retrial. Prosecutors, who had planned to use testimony from Porter in their cases against the other officers, appeared exasperated.

“They didn’t offer him immunity”.

Officers caught up to him, and they found a knife in his trousers. That made if all the more hard to show Mr. Porter had acted with callous indifference to Mr. Gray’s life, as the prosecution alleged. “It’s not”, he told reporters.

“Now there are lots of strategic decisions ahead”.

It’s not clear exactly what witness transcript they were seeking Wednesday. She also reminded those who are most certainly going to protest the ruling that the city is prepared to respond to “any disturbance”, and that the businesses and neighborhoods of Baltimore will be protected.

Protesters began to line up outside the courthouse after the verdict was announced.

His death triggered protests, rioting and arson in the majority black city of 620,000 people and intensified a USA debate on police treatment of minorities.

Gray’s highly emotional funeral on April 27 drew thousands of mourners and protesters.

“I urge everyone to remember that collectively, our reaction needs to be one of respect for our neighbourhoods”, Ms Rawlings-Blake said. We don’t know how the jury divided, but boy would we like to.

“Protesters who are lawfully assembled have a friend in the Baltimore Police Department”.

“Whether you like the decision or not, the Baltimore City NAACP calls for frustration and anger to be controlled and the rights of all people respected, on all sides”, Hill-Aston said in a statement.

Mosby’s decision in some sense serves as a counterpoint to the criticism leveled at authorities in Ferguson, Missouri, and NY for failing to secure indictments for officers involved in the killing of unarmed black men, observers said. “This was not a police officer with a history of disciplinary infractions”. Officers will be scheduled to work 12-hour shifts instead of the usual 10 hours. Gray, 25, died after an arrest after which he was reportedly given a so-called unrestrained “rough ride” in the police van and requested, but did not receive, medical attention.

Moreover, according to the Washington Post, retrying Porter might hurt the prosecution’s chances of convicting Caesar Goodson, the driver of the police van and the officer against whom the city may have its best case.

Porter faced second-degree assault, involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office charges.

The charges carried maximum prison terms totaling 25 years. All six officers are being tried separately and consecutively. In the meantime, he remains suspended without pay. “And that process has begun to turn”, Cummings said.

He said Gray told him he needed urgent medical care, but did not say why. “I think this is a gamble that was taken by the prosecution”.