BALTIMORE (AP) — The trials for six police officers charged in the Freddie Gray case should be moved out of town in part because the city already settled with Gray’s family for $6.4 million, sending a message that the officers are guilty, an attorney for one of them said Thursday.
Prosecutors argued that high-profile trials such as the Boston Marathon bomber and the D.C. sniper were held locally. The only circumstance under which a change of venue is appropriate is in “a small community where you have an armed lynch mob at the door,” Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow said.
Gray was a 25-year-old black man who died after being fatally injured while in police custody in April. Attorneys for the officers have said days of protests and riots, a city-wide curfew and other pretrial publicity would taint a jury pool made up of Baltimore residents.
And the settlement announced earlier this week sways prospective jurors and indicates “these officers are guilty, and if they are not guilty, why are we paying them $6.4 million?” said attorney Ivan Bates, who argued on behalf of all six officers.
In his argument, Schatzow said the riots were “confined to a relatively small geographic area” and not widespread enough to impact each and every Baltimore citizen.
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1 comment:
Of course the riots were confined to a small area. The black areas to be exact. They were herded and corralled in their own neighborhoods and given free reign to crap in their own nests and they are too stupid to see it. Try it in the affluent, tourist or business districts and they will need fire trucks to hose the black brains and blood down the storm-drains all at the BLACK mayors approval. Even though she is black she knows that in reality black lives don't really matter just so long as the city stays minority so it continues to vote her in and the way they multiply staying minority isn't a problem.
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