Posted on 05/01/2015 10:49:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Charges filed against the six Baltimore police officers for their involvement in the death of Freddie Grey will be dismissed, a George Washington University law professor predicted in an interview with The Daily Caller.
John Banzhaf, who teaches public interest law, says that the charges announced by Baltimore state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby on Friday “go too far.”
“I think a prosecutor is going to have a hard time proving that the actions did in fact cause death, since they seem to have no theory as to how it occurred,” Banzhaf said in a phone interview.
Gray was arrested on April 12 after a foot chase with police. He was transported in a police van to a processing center, where he was found unresponsive. He was then taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery.
His death on April 19 touched off massive protests across the nation, as well as rioting and looting in Baltimore.
Mosby said Friday that Gray’s arrest was illegal and that officers failed to provide him with medical assistance, even though he asked for it numerous times. A medical examiner ruled Gray’s death a homicide and determined that he suffered a broken neck and sustained a wound on the back of his head consistent with hitting it on a bolt on the van door.
The driver of the police van faces the toughest charges. Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. was charged with second-degree depraved-heart murder, manslaughter, assault and misconduct. Three other officers face voluntary or involuntary manslaughter charges. The other two face assault and misconduct charges.
But Banzhaf, who is most famous for his successful campaign to get smoking ads removed from TV, says that Mosby will have to show how each of the six charged officers directly contributed to Gray’s death.
“I think it is very difficult to pin responsibility on one person when you have four or five or six each doing a variety of things — or not doing a variety of things — which in some generalized way contributes to the overall outcome.”
“Again, you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that each of the individuals — Officer X, Officer Y, Officer Z — what he did or didn’t do was a direct cause of what happened,” Banzhaf said.
Baltimore police policy dictates that arrestees placed in a police van must be restrained with a seat belt. However, the president of Baltimore’s Fraternal Order of Police has argued that the policy went into effect just days before Gray’s arrest. He also said that the new policy was not being properly communicated to beat officers.
Banzhaf says that even if Gray’s arrest was illegal, as Mosby asserts, the “chain of legal causation” appears to have been broken. Thus, the officers who arrested Gray should not face many of the charges they are accused of committing.
He presented a scenario in which an officer is charged in the death of an inmate who was falsely arrested and then beaten to death in jail. He said that opening the door to that type of charge creates a slippery slope.
As for accusations that the officers were negligent in failing to provide medical care to Gray even after he asked for it, Banzhaf said that the defendants would likely bring experts who will testify that prisoners often make false claims about injuries.
“I think the cops will be able to find lots of experts who will say ‘this is pretty well standard,'” Banzhaf said. The officers’ defense experts would likely argue that “lots of people who are arrested start screaming that they are in pain, they can’t breath, they are hurt and so on. They do it to get leniency, or to get cuffs removed, and they also do it so that they set up claims stating that they were mishandled by police.”
Banzhaf also said he believes Mosby overcharged the officers.
“To be fair, many prosecutors … do overcharge,” he said.
He said that overcharging would be particularly effective in a case with multiple defendants. By overcharging, one defendant is more likely to open up about the actions of a co-defendant.
But given Mosby’s flimsy case, Banzhaf says that those who are happy with Friday’s announcement may be disappointed if a judge throws the case out.
“The people who are cheering saying how wonderful this because they support Mr. Gray may be very sadly disappointed when a judge looks at this and says, ‘Well, Ms. Mosby, you just can’t come in here and say ‘at some point somebody did something and we believe this caused his death.””
“You have to tell me when it happened,” Banzhaf said.
He said that besides Mosby overcharging as a prosecutorial strategy, she also may have done so because of public pressure.
“I think any prosecutor in her position would recognize that Baltimore is a tinderbox and that if something decisive wasn’t done now, it would likely lead to more riots and more problems,” Banzhaf said.
“So, better to do something now and appear to be decisive,” he said.
That's not what sites providing information on the topic are saying.
Read up on the literature of biomechanics of cervical spine injury.
The force involved is found motor vehicle accidents, not head butts.
I DON'T need to read up on anything to know that "anything is possible" and there are NO absolutes.
However, I guess you know exactly what happened.
We'll have the DA contact you for your special testimony immediately
“That’s not what sites providing information on the topic are saying.”
Links, please, because I find your claim not credible.
Heroin is a powerful opioid and opioids cause sedation.
I have a very athletic coworker who went to see an orthopedic surgeon last year for several health problems. Pain and reduced motion in her arms and shoulders being among the issues. Rotator cuff damage or spinal compression was suspected.
While performing x-rays and MRIs the surgeon discovered that this woman had a very dangerous problem in her neck. Her skull and neck were only barely connected, very close to “internal decapitation”, probably the result of a car wreck more than a dozen years ago.
A slip and fall, or the whiplash from even a low speed collision could have paralyzed or killed her if this had not been caught and repaired, and it was discovered only by accident.
If Freddie Gray had a similarly undiagnosed weakness from some long forgotten accident then what wouldn’t have been a life threatening injury to a normal person could have killed him.
That took me a minute.
I swear, it’s like I’m *trying* to be obscure, isn’t it?
;D
My ex severely damaged my neck by throwing me onto my side and then dropping his weight on my shoulder.
He refused to take me to the ER because he knew he’d be arrested.
[prison guard, bad scene, that]
For over a year, I could not turn my head at all.
I had to turn my body to look at anything, like a chicken.
Almost 30 years later, I still can’t turn my head to left very far.
They called it a Hangman Injury, which is basically sideways whiplash.
I have neuro issues and pain that is often crippling.
Reading her story scares me.
If I tilt my head back to look upwards, I nearly black out.
Three years ago, when trying to force a “crack”, a chiro gave me a mini-stroke.
Can’t remember the specific name of the type it was.
As much as I detest the thought, I think I need to have this finally looked at.
:-\
Pretty much my view too
Heroin and crazed don’t really go together in my experience unless a junkie is out Of dope
Then desperation and cramps and runny nose and hallucinations etc
But opioid withdrawal is piker compared to Xanax or Barbituates or Booze
My pharmacist friend swears Soma.....carisprodal....Is the worst withdrawal drug known to mankind physically and mentally.....it’s a muscle relaxer which makes one drowsy and slight euphoria and numb face like a quaalude.....it breaks down like Miltown....a 50s era tranquilizer similar to Placidyl.....jellybeans in my era....red or green
But a real beast to stop abruptly
My neurosurgeon office prescribes it but I’m wary of it....ive got probably 200 in my body injuries cabinet....I rarely use them
I do use Zanaflex at night when I can’t sleep.....muscle relaxants for spondilyosis are fairly ineffective but soft muscle relaxants injected locally in gut muscles when you are in the throes of dysentery in some turd hole.. Like Haiti or Gabon...it’s an Angels touch.... Extremely effective
Being high on heroin is sloppy....but happy....think falling asleep sitting up in a chair listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn as yer 1970s era Marlboro Red burns down to the filter tween your fingers
The Nod of lore
Oh and an itchy nose
The cheeks, always the cheeks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.