Protesters Taken Into Custody After Porter Mistrial Declared

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called for calm, as night closed in on Baltimore, a city of 620,000 that has among the highest murder rates in the United States. But instead of a dramatic conclusion, there was confusion.

Toobin said he believes the hung jury will benefit the defense – not just in Porter’s case, if he’s retried, but in the cases of the other five officers as well. On Wednesday, Williams declared the mistrial. Williams told them then to keep trying. A uniformed deputy was stationed outside the door as they met.

At the hour of the jury’s decision, the critical open question was to what extent the deeply held resentments of Baltimoreans, convinced that Mr. Porter should be held accountable for Mr. Gray’s death, would erupt into street violence, as they did last April.

“I’m not expecting our community to repeat April, but it is a bit of a kick in the chest”, she said. “But it is a bit of a kick in the chest”.

A jury had deliberated for 16 hours over whether Officer Porter was guilty of charges including involuntary manslaughter before a mistrial was declared.

SHAPIRO: The jury yesterday said they were deadlocked. “They chose the wrong defendant to try first”. “A mistrial means that the prosecution did not do their jobs good enough”, he said.

“Twelve Baltimore residents listened to the evidence presented and were unable to render a unanimous decision”, Rawlings-Blake said. “Today, seven months later, Officer Porter is no closer to a resolution than he was at that time”, Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #3 President Gene Ryan said in a written statement.

But the mistrial was a disappointment for some residents in need of a definitive resolution. His trial lasted a little more than two weeks.

Prosecutors said Porter should have buckled Gray, 25, into the police transport van after his arrest April 12 and radioed for medical help.

“It’s not over yet”, Porter told The Baltimore Sun in a brief phone conversation Wednesday evening, according to the newspaper. The defense said Porter went beyond the call of duty in helping the handcuffed and shackled prisoner move from the floor of the van to a bench in the wagon, and in telling the van driver and a supervisor that Gray said he needed to go to a hospital. Porter said Gray did not appear injured and kicked and yelled for most of the journey.

Attorney Billy Murphy, who obtained a $6.4 million settlement for Gray’s family, called the mistrial “a temporary bump on the road to justice”. If convicted on all charges, the maximum penalty he faces is about 25 years. This was an officer charged for what he did not do – not buckling someone into a seatbelt in the police van, not calling a medic when the detainee, Freddie Gray, recommended one. “Beyond that, they weren’t able to prove anything”, Levin said.

On Monday afternoon, jurors – three black men, four black women, three white women and two white men – began deliberations and immediately asked for the definitions of “evil motive”, “bad faith” and “not honestly”. That didn’t happen in the Gray case.

Porter, 26, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. He was the first of six officers charged in the case to go on trial.

In addition, the Justice Department is close to an agreement with the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, to bring sweeping changes to the agency, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Majority are re-prosecuted.