News Article Title[INDENT] All charges dropped in Freddie Gray case; no convictions [/INDENT]News Article Content[INDENT][I] Prosecutors dropped the remaining charges Wednesday against three Baltimore police officers awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray, ending the case without any convictions.
[SIZE=3]Gray was a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken while he was handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained in the back of a police van in April 2015. His death added fuel to the growing Black Lives Matter movement, set off massive protests in the city and led to the worst riots the city had seen in decades.
The day started with a pretrial hearing for Officer Garrett Miller – who had faced assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges. But instead of pretrial motions, Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow told the judge that prosecutors were dropping the charges against Miller and the rest of the officers.[/SIZE]
Anyone who thought anything different would happen is blatantly dumb. No witnesses, he ran, had a knife, video doesn’t back up the witness statements, he was injured/killed and then they overcharged the officers. Now, I figured maybe one of the lesser charges would have stuck, but I’m not surprised at all. Oh and this is why I laugh at anyone who says BLM is trying these cases in any fashion. All they are doing, which I think is good, is making the DA overcharge and point out some flaws in the court system. They keep getting found not guilty and it is a rarity they are even arrested and spend time in jail.
I mean Richard Pryor has a whole skit about things like this from over 30 years ago.
Anyone who thought anything different would happen is blatantly dumb. No witnesses, he ran, had a knife, video doesn’t back up the witness statements, he was injured/killed and then they overcharged the officers. Now, I figured maybe one of the lesser charges would have stuck, but I’m not surprised at all. Oh and this is why I laugh at anyone who says BLM is trying these cases in any fashion. All they are doing, which I think is good, is making the DA overcharge and point out some flaws in the court system. They keep getting found not guilty and it is a rarity they are even arrested and spend time in jail.
I mean Richard Pryor has a whole skit about things like this from over 30 years ago.[/QUOTE]
Hung jury and then they go to court trials in front of a judge…can’t do that in my state on felony charges (court trial).
I agree, I didn’t think they could get convictions. When they went to court trials instead of juries, I thought now THAT was a smart move. Juries are a crap shoot.
The DA overcharging? That’s common practice, to have something to plea bargain down to (yeah, I know, you know that already). However, it’s usually at least some sort of legit charge that I see done. I’ll caveat that by saying I haven’t seen any cops brought up on charges, so who knows…
Now she’s getting sued, I’m curious to see how that goes.
I don’t remember the Pyor skit, I’ll have to look that up. I’ve probably seen it, though, LOL!
[QUOTE=Tramirezmma;2895742]Somewhat sarcastic. Seems like someone should be in legal trouble when your prisoner dies, potentially due to a break in safety procedure.
That said, the outcome was predictable. You’d need something WAY more egregious and overt to bust a cop.[/QUOTE]
Seems like, but the cops get due process too. They did get into legal trouble, with the commensurate problems involved with that.
I dunno. There is the due process regular citizens get, and there is PD due process. At least that is how it always looks from the bottom rung. A man they were responsible for is dead, and no one is even getting community service? That is some pretty hardcore due process.
[QUOTE=Tramirezmma;2895825]I dunno. There is the due process regular citizens get, and there is PD due process. At least that is how it always looks from the bottom rung. A man they were responsible for is dead, and no one is even getting community service? That is some pretty hardcore due process.[/QUOTE]
None of them were convicted of anything, so no sentencing, so no community service. Not sure you understand due process…
They can be sanctioned for not following policy regarding seat belts or taking the guy to the hospital or whatever, through their work, for not following their SOP and/or training. Whether that happens or to what degree, I don’t know.
[QUOTE=BKR;2895879]None of them were convicted of anything, so no sentencing, so no community service. Not sure you understand due process…
They can be sanctioned for not following policy regarding seat belts or taking the guy to the hospital or whatever, through their work, for not following their SOP and/or training. Whether that happens or to what degree, I don’t know.[/QUOTE]
I’m aware, I just think it’s insane that it was determined no crime was committed. Gray is dead, but nobody killed him. Just a freak accident, right?
Give me a break, this decision is a miscarriage of justice. I’m not a judge or a prosecutor, but they couldn’t even stick them with negligent homicide, manslaughter, or even reckless driving?
To quote a man who also got railroaded by the justice system “To hell with your court, I know what justice is.”
Appreciate the conversation BKR, thank you for the reasoned replies.
[QUOTE=Tramirezmma;2895969]I’m aware, I just think it’s insane that it was determined no crime was committed. Gray is dead, but nobody killed him. Just a freak accident, right?
Give me a break, this decision is a miscarriage of justice. I’m not a judge or a prosecutor, but they couldn’t even stick them with negligent homicide, manslaughter, or even reckless driving?
To quote a man who also got railroaded by the justice system “To hell with your court, I know what justice is.”
Appreciate the conversation BKR, thank you for the reasoned replies.[/QUOTE]
People die all the time and nobody killed them. The coroner ruled it a homocide, but the DA could not and did not prove it in court.
So blame her for being incompetent ? She went after the cops very, very quickly, and aggressively. I don’t remember what the charges were for each officer.
One hung jury, they dismissed another, and had full blown court trials for the others.
So tell me, who do you think was corrupt, liked cops, etc., to create this “miscarriage of justice” ?
