Mistrial declared after jury deadlocks in first police officer trial over Freddie Gray death
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A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday after the jury deadlocked on charges against Baltimore police officer William Porter in the death of Freddie Gray.
After 16 hours of deliberation over three days, the jury said it could not agree on the involuntary manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct charges against the officer, according to the Baltimore Sun (reg. req.) and the Washington Post (reg. req.).
Porter, 26, is the first of six Baltimore officers charged in the case to go to trial. Gray, 25, was in custody when he suffered a broken neck and spinal cord injury in the back of a police van earlier this year. By the time the van arrived at its destination, he was unresponsive. A week later, he died.
Shackled hand and foot, Gray suffered an injury equivalent to diving into shallow water when he fell off a bench in the van, experts said at trial. Porter was accused of failing to buckle Gray’s seat belt and ignoring Gray’s request for medical help when he allegedly said he couldn’t breathe.
At trial, witnesses said it wasn’t common practice to use seat belts, and Porter testified that he saw no sign of injury on Gray and never heard him say that he couldn’t breathe, CNN reported earlier.
A defense pathologist said Gray’s death should have been considered an accident.
The high-profile case has been front and center in ongoing national protests over perceived mistreatment of blacks by police, and news of Gray’s death in custody sparked riots in Baltimore earlier this year.
Porter is also black, the Post article points out, and it appeared that seven of the 12 jurors were black.
In his testimony, Porter said he was sorry about the death of Gray and noted that the two had grown up in the same neighborhood.
“Freddie Gray and I weren’t friends, but we had a mutual respect,” the officer said, adding: “Any kind of loss of life, I’m sorry to see that.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Serious charges stick in indictments of officers in Freddie Gray case”
Associated Press: “Jury deadlocked in Freddie Gray manslaughter case”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Baltimore agrees to pay $6.4M to family of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody”
Guardian: “Baltimore police preparations ahead of Freddie Gray verdict alarm activists”
