Experts probe ethics of more trials in Gray case

Associated Press

BALTIMORE

Is it ethical for Baltimore’s top prosecutor, who staked her reputation on charging six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, to keep trying for a conviction? Legal experts said Friday that State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is obligated to consider this question.

Mosby seemed devastated after the trial judge found no evidence a crime was committed when the young black man’s neck was broken in the back of a police van.

The acquittal of van driver Caesar Goodson on all counts Thursday was more than just a courtroom setback, given the stakes Mosby raised last year when she announced the charges shortly after riots shook the city.

Stressing the ethical demands of her office and repeatedly invoking the civil unrest, Mosby vowed then to represent the aggrieved citizens of Baltimore who “experienced injustice at the hands of police officers.”

Judge Barry Williams also acquitted Officer Edward Nero, who also left Gray face-down in handcuffs and shackles but otherwise unrestrained inside the van’s metal compartment. The two nonjury verdicts, plus another officer’s mistrial, leaves four officers yet to be cleared and prosecutors already feeling defeated.

“I think she understands her ethical obligations,” said University of Baltimore President Kurt Schmoke, who had Mosby’s job in the 1980s before serving as the city’s mayor.

“If I were in her position, I’d take the next couple of days to re-evaluate the cases under these new circumstances. If she felt that the rest of the evidence that she has is not as strong as she felt last May, then I would think she would probably conclude that she shouldn’t proceed,” Schmoke said.

Mosby, like all others in the case, are bound by the judge’s gag order from commenting.

The four officers still facing charges will likely opt for nonjury trials before the same judge, and that should weigh heavily as Mosby decides how to proceed, legal experts say.

“The job of a prosecutor isn’t to obtain a conviction at all costs,” said David Weinstein, a defense attorney who spent 10 years as a state prosecutor and another 11 as a federal prosecutor. “It’s right for a prosecutor to strike hard, but they need to be fair.”