William Porter mistrial: Baltimore awaits next steps in Freddie Gray case
Nearby, protesters peacefully called for justice and greater awareness of the community’s economic hardships.
Baltimore officials had come under heavy criticism for a restrained initial response to the rioting, which some observers contended allowed arson and looting to spiral out of control.
Officer Porter’s next court date will be decided on Thursday.
A jury of five black women, three black men, three white women and one white man had told Judge Barry Williams they were deadlocked Tuesday afternoon, but later continued deliberations after being ordered by the judge. Mr Murtha declined to comment.
Will Porter stand trial again?
Right now, no new trial date is set for Officer William Porter one day after his closely watched case ends in a mistrial. But then you gotta go and mess it all up by having a mistrial for the first cop tried, and now we have to go read some really boring stories in places like WaPo and the New York Times to figure out what the hell that all means. “She went where constituents wanted her to go”.
Television footage outside the courthouse showed Baltimore sheriff’s deputies, who provide security at the building, taking demonstrator Kwame Rose into custody.
Gray family attorneys and prosecutors are expected to meet in private with the trial judge sometime Thursday. The suspect who was shot in the leg “continued to resist arrest” they said, and was brought to hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries”. “They did they best they could”. “It’s not”, he told reporters. In the the meantime, he urged the public to be “calm and patient”.
“We are confident there will be another trial with a different jury”, said Gray’s stepfather, Richard Shipley. “If we are calm, you should be calm too”.
It followed the police killings of black men in cities including Ferguson, Missouri, and NY, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement. The trial ended Wednesday with a hung jury and mistrial.
The judge declared a mistrial Wednesday.
Taking this exchange at face value would suggest that the driver, not Porter was at fault.
Prosecutors now have major strategic decisions to make.
One positive prosecutors could take from the mistrial relates to ongoing defense efforts to have the trials moved out of Baltimore. This is the first of what may be several meetings to discuss trial scheduling. “All of these issues will have to be debated, and the prosecution here is in serious trouble”. On the other hand, if he was acquitted, he became what’s called a compellable witness. A mistrial leaves open the possibility, usually at the discretion of the district attorney, to re-try the accused.
“I knew it was going to be hard on both sides. 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.
Williams’ ruling prompted protests, with scores of demonstrators marching in downtown Baltimore and gathering in Gray’s West Baltimore neighborhood. Small crowds of protesters gathered with signs and bullhorns.
“We can not – and will not – be defined by the unrest of last spring”.
Gray died after being transported in a police van. Prosecutors said Porter was summoned by the police van’s driver to check on Gray during stops on the way to a police station. Arguing standard practice was to not use seat belts.
Porter, 26, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. But Porter said officers rarely belted prisoners, if ever, despite their general order requiring them to do so. Combs pleaded guilty in September to misconduct in office and was sentenced to a year of home detention. There are six officers being held responsible for this tragic incident. “It’s these officers who are on trial, but the reputation of the police department was irreparably damaged when Freddie Gray died”.