Clearly she has now determined that the cops were right and the knife was an illegal switchblade under the local ordinance. Now everything boils down to whether this was a proper “Terry” stop.
“Clearly she has now determined that the cops were right and the knife was an illegal switchblade under the local ordinance.”
I doubt it. More likely she realizes that the cops perception of the law was backed up by past experience, because the Baltimore law has not really been tested. That is good enough for the cops.
The law probably would not hold up in court; but that is not the issue, the issue would be whether it was reasonable for the police to believe that the law would apply.
I bet that the police can show evidence that local prosecutors backed them on similar knife cases.
Hasn’t SCOTUS already ruled that cuffs can be used in a Terry Stop?
All Freddie had to do was not run and calmly challenge being detained.
“Am I under arrest? . “Am I free to go?”
.... Now everything boils down to whether this was a proper “Terry” stop.
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Even in Baltimore, the prosecutor is not going to get away with criminalizing the cops simply for lacking probably cause for a search; so the issue is going to turn on whether the prosecutor has met her burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the cops killed, or failed to tend to, Gray while he was in the van.