Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Baltimore State’s Attorney General Marilyn Mosby bypassed her own homicide unit and grand jury to quickly charge six Baltimore police officers in Freddie Gray’s death. Ms. Mosby is being criticized for undermining the cause of justice with her haste. Page Croyder, who worked in the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s office for nearly 21 years, said that Ms. Mosby had already made up her mind in this case.
She didn’t even have the autopsy report until the morning of she was announcing the charges. In other words, her mind was already made up. Ditto with the police report. She didn’t get the completed police investigative report until the day before she announced her charges.
One officer faces second degree murder, while the other officers are facing lesser charges. Yet, Page Croyder says that there was not probable cause to bring about the murder charge.
Based on what she wrote, there wasn’t even probable cause to charge the murder. What she says is that they repeatedly failed to get medical help and they didn’t put him in the seatbelt. That does not the same thing as depraved-heart murder unless she can show that they knew he had a broken neck.
Harvard law school professor and defense attorney Alan Dershowitz commented that there is not enough evidence to support a murder charge.
When you over-charge, when you charge somebody with murder who shouldn’t be charged with murder, I’ve seen no evidence to support a murder prosecution in this case, you risking losing everything. And so, what she’s done is mortgage the future to the present.
While only on the job for four months, Mosby sounds like she wants to prosecute this case her way.
So we will pursue justice by any and all means necessary.
Mosby says the switchblade that Gray was carrying was legal, but the police task force said the officers were correct in detaining Gray for possessing a prohibited weapon. Mosby could face a potential civil suit for her sloppy work in charging these police officers.
BCN editor’s note: This article first appeared at Western Journalism.
