Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby on Thursday proposed a slate of reforms for how police officers accused of misconduct can be investigated and prosecuted, citing her failure to convict a single officer in the Freddie Gray case as her motivation.
She said “equality must be a felt reality” in Baltimore, and that her five proposed reforms — including giving investigators in her office police powers and prosecutors the right to reject a criminal defendant’s request for a bench trial — would go a long way toward leveling the playing field between average citizens and police officers accused of similar offenses.
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Mosby said she had challenged a “longstanding protective norm” in charging the six Baltimore officers in the arrest and death of Gray, and ended up learning “hard, valuable and challenging lessons” about the need for institutional change.
Gray, 25, died a week after suffering spinal cord injuries in the back of a police transport van in April 2015. The six officers were cleared of charges including misconduct in office, manslaughter and murder.
Mosby made five proposals including the replacement of the police department’s Special Investigation Response Team, which responds to all incidents in which police officers use significant force, with a “collaborative investigative team” made up of one police investigator, one investigator from her office, one Maryland State Police investigator and one Civilian Review Board investigator and the proposal to give police powers to investigators in Mosby’s office would allow them to carry firearms, issue warrants and make arrests.
It was her recommendation that prosecutors be given a say in whether criminal defendants can select a bench trial that caught the attention of many.
So let us get this straight. Marilyn Mosby, as Baltimore State’s Attorney, filed charges against six police officers and lost every case and instead of blaming your incompetence, you just want to take a right away from defendants to choose a bench trial with a judge or with a jury?
Well, at least your incompetence is consistent.
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