Posted on 05/10/2015 7:00:52 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
When Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges last week against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, the wording of one offense surprised many casual observers. Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., the driver of the police van in which Mr. Gray was fatally injured, was charged with “second degree depraved-heart murder.”
In Maryland and other states, “depraved-heart murder” defendants allegedly know the harm an act might inflict but are recklessly indifferent to that damage, even if there is no intent to kill. The person’s “depraved” state of mind distinguishes the charge from manslaughter, in which there is no “malice aforethought,” to use another quaint legal phrase.
Why do “depraved heart” and “malice aforethought,” which sound like the words of some long-ago fire-and-brimstone preacher, linger in American legal language?
The explanation goes back to the U.S. legal system’s underpinnings in English common law. This system enshrines some antiquated phrasing passed down over generations, as courts make decisions based on precedents in similar cases.
In Maryland, the criminal-law statutes on homicide make no mention of “depraved-heart murders,” but past judicial decisions in the state let prosecutors pursue such a charge. Other mustily moralistic phrases crop up when courts rely on precedents to instruct juries on verdicts, such as “abandoned or malignant heart,” “wickedness of disposition” and “hardness of heart.”
Ohio State University law-school dean Alan C. Michaels, who wrote a widely cited 1998 article in the Southern California Law Review critiquing the “depraved-heart” murder doctrine, told me that such old-fashioned phraseology faded in popularity with the drafting of the Model Penal Code, a 1962 document that sought to regularize the patchwork of American criminal law and strip away anachronisms.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Because, Mr. Zimmer, depravity and malice haven't gone away -- simply because our language has been dumbed down.
Oh. You mean as in Fast & Furious?
But what is the evidence backing the depraved heart charge? i don’t know. Just asking. Was he caught on camera starting and stopping the van suddenly on purpose to cause injury? Who knows. Grand Jury will see the evidence.
The lengthy legal motion cites a variety of concerns, including conflicts of interest and questions about the office's independent investigation. Copyright 2015 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.kspr.com/news/nationworld/attorneys-call-for-baltimore-prosecutor-to-be-dismissed/21051646_32896740
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FACTS ON FILE The city of Baltimore received over $1.8 billion from President Barack Obama’s stimulus law, including $467.1 million to invest in education and $26.5 million for crime prevention.” Baltimore has spent the third-highest amount per student in education at an average of $15,287, only 16% of the city’s eighth graders score at or above reading level and 13% at or above grade level in math---
This explains the rampant adult illiteracy .....from Cong Cummings, the Prosecutor, her councilman hubby, the Mayor, the Police Commissioner...... who all blamed the cops for the looting and burning.....
Marilyn Mosby's hatred was on full display.... given the tortured Mosby case, we should now be alert to hordes of salivating liberals planning to get rich by filing criminal prosecutions across America. All of it calculatedly driven by inciting fear of mobs in the street.
Obama has a Sharia shaped depraved heart toward infidels.
Ifidel? Includes the vast majority of the United States. And everything to do with out legal system. No wonder he defies and ignores the “Rule of Law” that exists in the U.S.
Have you noticed when Islamist take over a nation they destroy monuments and artifacts that have any connection with their civilization. Wonder why?
They must, because there is no way they can stand careful comparison to any modern civilization.
Who else did this?
Nazi’s toward Jews? And there are other evil movements who have done same. What do they have in common? They serve the wrong master.
And yes, Genocide is well within their scope of action. Like ISIS.
Have a good Sunday my FRiend.
God Bless the United States of America.
I think this phrasing does well to characterize the cop’s actions as I seriously doubt they intended to kill Freddie Gray. But the consequences of their actions and inactions were his death and I look forward to seeing them go to jail.
3 legs of the murder + a body.
1. Means (thrashing about in a moving vehicle)
2. Motive (cummuppence, behavioral punishement)
3. Opportunity (Driving or present in the car)
The statement and notion you are trying to convey doesn’t make sense. Evidence and judgement come during the trial. The bar for charges are significantly lower than a trial and the DA (State Attorney in this case) has discretionary powers.
Despite this nitwit DA, there is a strong case against at least some of the cops present involved — namely the driver and anybody in the paddy wagon who was specifically there as part of the move team, or part of Freddie Gray’s arrest.
Depraved heart is based in judeo-christian morality for law which is the very basis of our country. I guess when it suits the need the government is okay with judeo-christian ethics and when it doesn’t suit their needs to be damned with christians. Whatever happend to separation of Church and state? I guess it only applies in certain circumstances.
No “case” has actually been presented. Cause of death has not been specified, but exists in rumors. Cause is central to any legal theory on liability and culpability. We know the victim did not die in police custody, but under medical care, we have “reports” that the victim had heroin in his system, in addition to a spinal cord injury, and we have rumors about a bolt that was in the space where the victim was being transported that has been talked about being the method of injury.
We also know that NO ONE directly caused the injury under the legal theories presented. The driver was charged severely which leads to the conclusion the prosecutor believed he was most responsible. He did not shoot the victim, knife the victim or do any direct harm that has been presented. Does evidence exist that the driver did a fright ride gone bad? Not that I have seen publicly presented. Does the van have a chip that was examined with the last info on van being bizarre driving? Did the van have a reporting gps or the officers have telephone gps information that would also be documentary evidence of a fright ride.
Yes it is a brave new world that way, and most people don’t think of it. I doubt anyone has put this up because the prosecutor chose to bypass REAL homicide investigators who would have done that.
The knife is clearly a point of prosecutorial bizarreness. Without an illegal arrest, most of the charges drop. As has been pointed out in other forums, it even presents the possibility that the prosecutor illegally arrested the police officers based on nonsense, and should/could be charged under the same legal theory she arrested the officers on, unlawful imprisonment. And that alone has BROAD implications for all police actions.
How did the driver kill the victim? Did he actually call for medical during the transport? Was policy violated or did the victim make the policy difficult or dangerous? Was the van responsible as a defective product?
There are a number of unanswered questions, and some of them should have been answered before charging. Some interesting questions now that charging has happened are:
By bypassing the normal investigatory process and choosing to involve the prosecutor’s office in the investigation, did they open themselves to criminal liability as prosecutors? In other words, did they open the door that police always have as a possibility by taking over that role, and they will have to answer those questions in a court.
Your three legs of a murder:
1) means...should have been purposefully using the vehicle to toss the prisoner around, which if done effectively to that purpose that has a significant probability of causing death...was there any bruising on major parts of the body impacted by various parts of the body that would indicate this happened? Was this possibly caused at another time or place and can those theories be minimized or dismissed as the defense should call it at trial. The city has paid out MILLIONS in fright ride cases, can this be directly tied to
ANY of them? Same driver, same van, same officers?
2) Motive, depraved heart is one of those few murder charges that asserts the suspect needs no motive other than he “felt like doing it”. Is that really a case than can be presented? Will psych exams bolster that theory? Or is a real motive needed for the jury and depraved heart theory really bizarre and inappropriate.
3) Opportunity, who did it? When did it happen? How did it happen? If the victim died from an overdose from swallowed heroin and stopped breathing, causing brain damage and eventual death...are the police responsible for the death and how?
You can charge anyone with anything, but in the US you probably should have answered more questions before doing it. And if you disagree with police management in a task force about an illegal knife, you will probably lose a case against the police on an illegal arrest without the “benefit” of a committee to make a street level decision.
We agree the prosecutor is a nitwit. I just believe if she would have let the process for investigating police misconduct run it’s course, the outcome would have been justice rather than a show trial reminiscent of Kaftka.
DK
You're confusing 'case' with trial. Case is merely and administrative term, the ruling was ruled homicide and the officers involved have been charged. NOT convicted and NOT sentenced. They are awaiting trial and a 'case' will be presented against them during that trial, unless they cop pleas, then they will either be guilty, guilty to a degree or innocent and sentenced or released and charges dropped, case closed.
"We also know that NO ONE directly caused the injury under the legal theories presented
That's false. They're accused of causing the death of Freddie Gray by shackling his hands and feet (possibly together) then throwing him in the back of a police van with no safety restraint, then gave him the "rough ride". Suffice it to say, Freddie Gray was in their custody when he was injured and essentially died. He died a week later, and there is precedence in charging people for homicide when somebody dies even years after the incident.
These are the only legal theories you need concern yourself with:
"The knife is clearly a point of prosecutorial bizarreness. Without an illegal arrest, most of the charges drop.
The knife is irrelevant. The bogus "illegal arrest" is irrelevant. Police have 99.9% immunity from such charges unless and if they are part of a bigger package of charges, such as homicide. Those charges would never be brought criminally against the officers had Freddie Gray not been injured and not died. Standard DA stuff that's been going on and accepted legally for many decades -- even surpassing a century or so.
"By bypassing the normal investigatory process ... Blah Blah Blah"
You mean the police internal investigation? Like the IRS internal investigation or the State Department internal investigation of Benghazi, or the ATF and DHS internal investigation over fast and furious? Read that last paragraph, let it sink in then look at my tagline.
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