Baltimore Judge, Not Jury, to Decide next Freddie Gray Murder Case...

stringer bell
stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/us/baltimore-judge-not-jury-to-decide-freddie-gray-murder-case.html?_r=0
BALTIMORE — The police officer charged with murder in the death of Freddie Gray chose on Monday to have a bench trial, eliminating a jury from his emotionally charged case and placing the verdict in the hands of the same judge who acquitted another officer two weeks ago.

The officer, Caesar R. Goodson Jr., a veteran of Baltimore’s police force, was driving the police wagon that Mr. Gray, a 25-year-old black man, was riding in when he suffered the spinal injury that killed him. Mr. Gray’s death, in April 2015, led to violent protests in the city and became a cornerstone of the nation’s wrenching debate over the way police officers use force against minorities.

Just over a year ago, the city’s top prosecutor, Marilyn J. Mosby, charged six officers in the arrest and death of Mr. Gray — a move that effectively calmed the city but has yet to yield any convictions. The presiding judge, Barry G. Williams, granted each officer a separate trial. The first, of Officer William G. Porter, ended in December with a hung jury and led to months of delays. In the second trial, last month, Officer Edward M. Nero was acquitted by Judge Williams.

Officer Goodson faces the most serious charge — second-degree murder — in Mr. Gray’s death. His trial, which begins Thursday, will be watched closely in a city where many residents have hoped for a conviction in the case.

“You are waiving your right to have a jury trial, do you understand that?” Judge Williams asked as he peered at Officer Goodson from the bench during a pretrial hearing in his cavernous courtroom on Monday.

“Yes,” Officer Goodson replied, softly.

Legal experts said Judge Williams’s acquittal of Officer Nero on May 23 weighed heavily in Officer Goodson’s decision to avoid a jury trial.

“You put all your eggs in one basket when you elect to have a court trial instead of a 12-member jury,” said Warren S. Alperstein, a defense lawyer who has watched the cases against the officers.

“But keep in mind,” Mr. Alperstein added, “that this is a very highly emotionally charged case, and there’s a risk that a jury would not be able to separate the emotion or ignore the emotion in this case, whereas Judge Williams has just demonstrated that he is able to.”


Officer Goodson, 47, had been a Baltimore police officer for 17 years when he responded to the arrest of Freddie Gray in West Baltimore’s blighted Sandtown neighborhood last year. Mr. Gray had fled, unprompted, from police officers, who later placed him in Officer Goodson’s transport wagon. Mr. Gray was not secured by a seatbelt. With Officer Goodson at the wheel, the wagon made a series of stops in the neighborhood; when it arrived at the Western District police station, Mr. Gray was unresponsive and no longer breathing. He died a week later from a functionally severed spinal cord.

Officer Goodson, who is black, also faces charges of manslaughter and second-degree assault. Court filings have hinted that prosecutors may argue that Officer Goodson intentionally drove the van dangerously, taking Mr. Gray for a so-called rough ride.

Prosecutors are also expected to argue that it was Officer Goodson’s duty to secure Mr. Gray in a seatbelt and to obtain medical attention when asked, and that by failing to do so, he displayed extreme indifference to human life.

Judge Williams dealt a potential blow to that argument on Monday by granting a defense motion to preclude the testimony of a detective who said that Officer Porter had told her Mr. Gray had said he could not breathe during the van ride.

A small group of demonstrators who gathered outside of the courthouse were dismayed to learn Officer Goodson would be tried by a judge.

“The decision is devastating,” said the Rev. Cortly Witherspoon, known as C.D., the president of Baltimore’s chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “The citizens of this city were robbed of the opportunity to decide what happens with Officer Goodson.”

Comments