You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

No Convictions for Any Cops Involved in Arrest and Death of Freddie Gray

HeadlineJul 28, 2016

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has announced she will drop all charges against the remaining three police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Gray died in April 2015 of spinal injuries after he was arrested and transported in a police van. This is State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

Marilyn Mosby: “Without real substantive reforms to the current criminal justice system, we could try this case a hundred times, and cases just like it, and we would still end up with the same result. Accordingly, I have decided not to proceed on the cases against Officer Garrett, Sergeant Alicia White, or to relitigate the case against William Porter. As a mother—as a mother, the decision not to proceed on these trials, on the remaining trials, is agonizing. However, as a chief prosecutor elected by the citizens of Baltimore, I must consider the dismal likelihood of conviction at this point.”

Gray’s death set off nationwide protests, but many activists had already lost faith any officers would be convicted. This is Baltimore activist Kwame Rose on Democracy Now! after the acquittal of Lieutenant Brian Rice, the highest-ranking officer to face trial.

Kwame Rose: “Well, you know, my thoughts on the verdict, it’s completely evident at this point that Marilyn Mosby charged these six officers only to stop protest. And what powers that be in Baltimore City feared was unrest that will continue to happen if they did not charge. So this was a crowd control. That’s what this measure was.”

Kwame Rose was convicted and fined on charges related to protests last year in favor of charging the officers. On Wednesday, New York Times columnist Charles Blow responded to the news that all charges against officers had been dropped by writing, “I am now incandescent with rage … I am at the screaming place.” We’ll have more from Baltimore later in the broadcast.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top