Six years to the day since the death of Freddie Gray, police misconduct remains a hot topic.
Several killings at the hands of police are in the news and Derek Chauvin is on trial in last year’s death of George Floyd.
Attorney Billy Murphy, who represented Gray’s family and negotiated what, at the time, was a record payout for a single Baltimore police misconduct case, said Floyd’s family has the benefit of seeing Chauvin face a jury. Under longstanding state judicial procedure rules, Maryland criminal defendants may opt for a bench trial while in Minnesota, prosecutors must concur with the request.
“The police officers here had the right to waive a jury trial… and they took advantage of it. And they lucked out and got a judge, Barry Williams, who saw it their way,” Murphy told C4 and Bryan Nehman.
None of the six officers charged in connection with Gray’s death were ultimately convicted and all remain on the force. Murphy said that, had the case been heard by a jury, things might have gone differently. As she announced the end to her prosecution of the officers, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby also lamented the fact the officers could opt for bench trials.
In the intervening years, other officers have been brought before judges in state and federal court, including those involved in the wide-ranging Gun Trace Task Force. Murphy said the relationship between police and residents won’t improve until bad cops like those are taken off the street.
“And they are bitter that they got prosecuted, and so you see that some of them lay down on the job and just don’t do their work,” he said.
He said that these factors are part of why the department’s clearance rate on homicides has plummeted.
