This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, June 8, 2016:
An internet search for links to radical groups, membership in far-left organizations, degrees from leftist universities (i.e., Harvard Law), reveals nothing about Marilyn Mosby (shown above), the youngest chief prosecutor of any major city in the country.
Instead she appears to be a very bright, highly-regarded prosecutor who graduated magna cum laude from Tuskegee University with a BA in Political Science and a law degree from Boston College Law School. Her family traces its association with law enforcement back over five generations.
And yet she persists in prosecuting – some say persecuting – the six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray back in 2015. The first trial ended in a hung jury. The second resulted in an acquittal. The third one starts this week in Baltimore.
Involved is the driver of the police van that transported Freddie Gray to the station house on April 12. When Gray arrived, medical examiners discovered that his neck was broken, which resulted in his death seven days later. Communist radicals descended on Baltimore like locusts, chanting “Send those killer cops to jail!” and burning the city during protests that lasted for days and made headline news all across the land.
Not willing to accept that her case against the six officers is weak – some say she's guilty of overreaching, called “overcharging” – she is doubling down and asking the judge (it's a bench trial, not a jury trial) to convict van driver Officer Caesar Goodson of “depraved heart” murder which would send him to jail for up to 30 years.
Much of what happened that day is now public knowledge. Gray was arrested for possessing an illegal switchblade knife and placed in a police van to take him to the precinct station for booking. There were six officers involved, including Goodson, the driver of the van. In the van was another suspect being transported as well.
Testimonies given by the officers and the suspect in the previous trials indicated that Gray became violent to the extent that officers were unable to fasten his seatbelt as ordinarily required. So violent, according to testimonies, that he began to rock the van from side to side. At some point he apparently hit his head against the inside of the van so violently that he broke his neck, severing his spinal cord, which led to his death seven days later.
On May 1, Mosby announced that the medical examiner had ruled Gray's death a homicide and charged all six officers with crimes that included everything from false arrest and illegal imprisonment to murder. A grand jury indicted them on all charges (except false arrest and illegal imprisonment) while adding a couple of its own: reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.
The first trial failed to gain a conviction and the officer is scheduled to be retried in September. The second trial ended in acquittal of all charges. In the third Mosby is going for broke. As Scott Calvert explained in the Wall Street Journal:
Standard jury instructions in Maryland describe second-degree murder as “the killing of another person while acting with an extreme disregard for human life.” Depraved heart murder is a type of second-degree murder that doesn't require an intent to kill, but prosecutors must prove that Officer Goodson caused Mr. Gray's death, knew his actions created a “very high degree of risk” of death, and acted “with extreme disregard of the life endangering consequences.”
Law professors teaching the concept use examples of a gunman firing randomly into a passing train or thugs dropping concrete blocks onto a busy highway: they aren't intent on killing a specific individual but are operating with a total disregard for anyone whom their actions might kill. In the instant case, she is going to have to prove to the judge's satisfaction that Goodson drove the van in such a manner as to cause the injury to Gray that resulted in his death.
That is called a “rough ride”: a vehicle driven in such a manner that it allows officers to inflict purposefully personal injury on a suspect in order to punish him or injure him. In an interview with David Jaros, a law professor at the University of Baltimore, David Graham, a writer for The Atlantic, asked why Mosby can't seem to get a conviction. Said Jaros: “It's a pretty significant [jump] from [depraved murder] to failing to buckle someone into a van.”
Why does she persist? Is she trying to build her resume? Is she doing someone's bidding? Is she being used as a puppet to promote the anti-local police agenda, to be discarded and cast aside once the furor dies down? Is she a pawn in the larger war against police across the nation?
One thing is clear: absent new evidence, Goodson will also be acquitted. That will spark some more Soros-funded riots to burn the city.
As for the other three officers awaiting trial? It's probably too much to ask that Mosby regain her senses, call off the dogs, and let these officers return to what's left of their personal and professional lives.
Sources:
Bio of Marilyn Mosby, State's Attorney for the city of Baltimore, Maryland
Mosby's personal background statement
The Wall Street Journal: Freddie Gray Case Puts Focus on ‘Depraved Heart' Murder Charge
the new american: Officer in Freddie Gray Case Found Not Guilty on All Charges
The New american: Mistrial Declared in Freddie Gray Police Trial
Background on Freddie Gray's death
The Atlantic: Can Prosecutors Convict Anyone at All in the Death of Freddie Gray?
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