(America)
Baltimore’s top prosecutor dropped remaining charges against police officers tied to the death of black detainee Freddie Gray, after failing four times to secure convictions in a case that inflamed the U.S. debate on race and justice.
Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby had stunned the city and became a national figure when she filed charges against six officers just days after Gray’s death from a broken neck suffered in a police van sparked protests and rioting in April 2015.The death of the 25-year-old was among the high-profile deaths of black suspects at the hands of U.S. police that have made law enforcement tactics and police officers’ treatment of minorities into national headlines, It also fueled the rise of the civil rights movement Black Lives Matter.
The decision to drop charges against the three remaining officers facing trial came a day before Officer Garrett Miller was due to go on trial in Baltimore City Circuit Court.
At a news conference held before a mural in Gray’s neighborhood memorializing him, a combative Mosby said individual police officers had tried to thwart her investigation.
The interference included officers who were witnesses investigating the case and key questions not being asked during interrogations, she said. A police counter-investigation aimed at disproving the prosecution’s case also failed to execute search warrants, Mosby said.
“Police investigating police, whether they are friends or merely their colleagues, was problematic,” she said to cries of “we’re with you” from onlookers.
Successful prosecution was impossible without an independent investigation, a say in whether the cases would be heard before a judge or jury, community oversight of police and major justice reforms, she added.
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