http://fox4beaumont.com/news/nation-...-degree-murder
The BLM movement and news hysteria surrounding it have quieted as of recently, but I would find it remiss not to bring up that one of its biggest supporters, the elected District Attorney of Baltimore, Mosby, came up with another whiff.
The driver in the Freddie Gray case, Caesar Goodson, was recently acquitted in a bench trial (in front of a judge rather than a jury) of all homicide charges and lesser-includeds.
This follows Officer Nero, who was acquitted in a bench trial, and Officer Porter, who took his case to jury and had a hung jury (meaning the State is not barred from retrying the case). Mosby's office has been reprimanded by the Judge for Brady violations. http://www.dailywire.com/news/6478/b...ichael-qazvini Essentially, the prosecutor's office has the affirmative duty to disclose all evidence that hurts or helps the person they are prosecuting. Failure to disclose the evidence may result in sanctions such as a judge barring or allowing certain evidence. For instance, the state's attorney's office was chastised for withholding info on a statement that a witness who was in custody in the same van made, and that Freddie Gray may have had prior cases where he tried to get hurt by police to get payouts.
Freddie Gray, as you remember, was one of the patron saints of the Black Lives Matters movement. D.A. Mosby got a national platform from announcing that the six officers that were involved in the Freddie Gray arrest would be charged with pretty much the highest possible charges, before the official investigation was completed, which, while not unprecedented, is pretty ballsy. In a run-of-the-mill misdemeanor or felony case, yeah, charges can be filed so a suspect can get locked into the system or get a high bond while the investigation continues, but you have to have enough PC to get those charges filed in the first place.
To whiff this badly, and with Officer Goodson, the driver in the case who should have been the "easiest" case to prove, being found guilty on every charge and lesser-included, just shows how pandering and in-over-her-head D.A. Mosby was.
Since I'm a prosecutor too, I'm very sympathetic to D.A.'s, especially those who have to contend with high rates of gang and drug-related violence in the inner-cities. Trying to prosecute domestic violence cases in a small county is hard enough, I can't imagine trying to wade through the "code of silence" that allows thousands of criminals to beat their charges.
However, one of the basic tenets of prosecution is to never file charges on a case that you don't think you can win. Sure, sometimes certain charges are a stretch, and many times there's good principal in sticking to your guns and trying to bring justice despite it being a close case (often these so-called close-cases aren't close in theory but due to witness non-cooperation they are much harder than they should be), but what D.A. Mosby did was inexcusable.
Announcing the charges before the investigation was over. Falsely planting hope in the minds of those who had already determined the cops were in the wrong. Inflaming the community against BPD. And not to mention the massive amount of money and manpower that was wasted in these cases which have each gone down as hard as the Death Stars.
I hate do it, but sometimes it's delicious. I told you so.
The BLM movement and news hysteria surrounding it have quieted as of recently, but I would find it remiss not to bring up that one of its biggest supporters, the elected District Attorney of Baltimore, Mosby, came up with another whiff.
The driver in the Freddie Gray case, Caesar Goodson, was recently acquitted in a bench trial (in front of a judge rather than a jury) of all homicide charges and lesser-includeds.
This follows Officer Nero, who was acquitted in a bench trial, and Officer Porter, who took his case to jury and had a hung jury (meaning the State is not barred from retrying the case). Mosby's office has been reprimanded by the Judge for Brady violations. http://www.dailywire.com/news/6478/b...ichael-qazvini Essentially, the prosecutor's office has the affirmative duty to disclose all evidence that hurts or helps the person they are prosecuting. Failure to disclose the evidence may result in sanctions such as a judge barring or allowing certain evidence. For instance, the state's attorney's office was chastised for withholding info on a statement that a witness who was in custody in the same van made, and that Freddie Gray may have had prior cases where he tried to get hurt by police to get payouts.
Freddie Gray, as you remember, was one of the patron saints of the Black Lives Matters movement. D.A. Mosby got a national platform from announcing that the six officers that were involved in the Freddie Gray arrest would be charged with pretty much the highest possible charges, before the official investigation was completed, which, while not unprecedented, is pretty ballsy. In a run-of-the-mill misdemeanor or felony case, yeah, charges can be filed so a suspect can get locked into the system or get a high bond while the investigation continues, but you have to have enough PC to get those charges filed in the first place.
To whiff this badly, and with Officer Goodson, the driver in the case who should have been the "easiest" case to prove, being found guilty on every charge and lesser-included, just shows how pandering and in-over-her-head D.A. Mosby was.
Since I'm a prosecutor too, I'm very sympathetic to D.A.'s, especially those who have to contend with high rates of gang and drug-related violence in the inner-cities. Trying to prosecute domestic violence cases in a small county is hard enough, I can't imagine trying to wade through the "code of silence" that allows thousands of criminals to beat their charges.
However, one of the basic tenets of prosecution is to never file charges on a case that you don't think you can win. Sure, sometimes certain charges are a stretch, and many times there's good principal in sticking to your guns and trying to bring justice despite it being a close case (often these so-called close-cases aren't close in theory but due to witness non-cooperation they are much harder than they should be), but what D.A. Mosby did was inexcusable.
Announcing the charges before the investigation was over. Falsely planting hope in the minds of those who had already determined the cops were in the wrong. Inflaming the community against BPD. And not to mention the massive amount of money and manpower that was wasted in these cases which have each gone down as hard as the Death Stars.
I hate do it, but sometimes it's delicious. I told you so.