Freddie Gray jury deliberations enter day 3 while Baltimore braces for verdict
A deadlocked, 12-member jury asked to reach a consensus on Baltimore Officer William G. Porter’s guilt or innocence in the death of Freddie Gray resumed deliberations Wednesday morning.
UPDATE: Mistrial declared in trial of officer in death of Freddie Gray
Judge Barry G. Williams on Tuesday ordered the jury back to work, asking them to try harder to reach a consensus on the charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. If the jury cannot reach a verdict, Williams will be forced to declare a mistrial on the undecided counts, leaving it to prosecutors to decide whether to retry the case.
After 10 hours of deliberations that began Monday afternoon, jury members sent a note to Williams on Tuesday afternoon indicating that they were deadlocked. The panel did not elaborate on whether the members were split on one, some or all of the charges, or which way they were leaning.
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Williams, meeting the jurors in open court, instructed them to return to deliberations. He read from a portion of the jury instructions that said the members must come to a unanimous decision in order to reach a conviction or acquittal. Jurors then deliberated for about two more hours before breaking for the day.
Gray, 25, suffered a broken neck and severe spinal cord injury in the back of a police transport van after his arrest on April 12. His death a week later prompted widespread protests against police brutality, and his funeral was followed by the most intense rioting and looting in the city since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby charged Porter and five other officers in Gray’s arrest and death on May 1, and many have watched the proceedings in Porter’s trial closely.
A mistrial — and no clear resolution — could ratchet up tensions in the city.
A judge can declare a mistrial only if a jury insists that it cannot reach a verdict.
A jury must be unanimous in order to reach a verdict on any charge. The jury could reach verdicts on some of the charges but remain deadlocked on others. A conviction or acquittal on one of the charges would stand regardless of whether a mistrial was declared on other charges.
If a mistrial is declared, it would be up to prosecutors to decide whether to put Porter on trial again. In making that decision, prosecutors must weigh their chances of securing a conviction in a subsequent trial, said J. Amy Dillard, associate professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
If Porter’s case ends in a mistrial, it could have implications for the legal strategies in the cases against the five other officers, who are set to be tried individually next year in similarly complex cases.
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