Baltimore - The Best Show in Town.

With the state of emergency and curfew still in full effect yesterday (30/4/15) Baltimore police handed the results of its investigation to the prosecutors office. The prosecutor - Marilyn Mosby - then issued a very loaded statement effectively saying that it won't be trusting the police's report and instead will be conducting its own investigation to ensure that a prosecution takes place.

As Marilyn Mosby was issuing her statement her husband - Nick Mosby - was appearing on CNN in his role as a member of the Baltimore city council. He again used this appearance to announce that he could not understand why Gray had been arrested in the first place. This really makes me worry about the state of the Mosby marriage because you would think that at some point over the previous 18 days Marilyn Mosby could have sent her husband a text message explaining that carrying and offensive weapon is a criminal offence under Section 4-101(c)(1) of the Maryland criminal code.

Later in the day Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake appeared at a news conference hosted by Al Sharpton and his National Action Network (NAN) and declared that she will bring justice for Freddie Gray. Given Sharpton's track record I can't begin to list everything that is wrong with this but it certainly appears to be prejudicial political interference in the case.

Later Baltimore police leaked details of the Medical Examiner's report which indicated that Freddie Gray sustained a fatal injury by smashing his head against a bolt in the police van. The implication being that he was faking injury at the time of his arrest which would support claims that he was trying to injure himself in the police van. This is actually not that uncommon because most people would prefer a comfy hospital bed to a cold police interrogation room. This is particularly true if like Gray you were staring at your 23rd strike and a possible 10 years in prison.

Basically what's going on is that as happened in New York City over the Eric Garner death the Baltimore Mayor's office has declared war on the police depart. Now both sides are rushing to leak information that supports their side.

I for one am happy to get the popcorn out and watch because I know that under US law there will come a point where the Mayor's office will have to end it's whispering campaign and either lay out the facts of it's case or issue an apology.

11:00 on 1/5/15 (UK date).

Edited at around 19:50 on 1/5/15 (UK date) to add;

Although she stopped short of laying out the facts of her case this afternoon Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby decided to pre-empt the Grand Jury hearing by issuing arrest warrants for the five police officers involved in the Freddie Gray case. So I've decided that in Ms Mosby we clearly have a reader if sadly not of the infamous "Bluebook." Therefore in the interests of justice it will be best for me to allow the relevant defence teams take the lead here.

However in an effort to justify her decision Ms Mosby claimed that the officers in question did not have probable cause to detain, handcuff and search Mr Gray. In legal terms this is what is considered an irrelevance because Terry V Ohio (1968) established that the police do not need probable cause to detain search a suspect. Instead they merely need a reasonable suspicion. Although this must be more then a mere hunch the precedent held that staring at a shop window is sufficient so being a known offender in a high crime area such as Mr Gray was or running from the police as Mr Gray did certainly qualify. In order to carry out a search under the so-called "Terry test" police officers are allowed to chase and use reasonable force to detain the suspect including handcuffing, tasering and even punching full in the face using what is termed a "control blow."

Having searched Mr Gray the police found him to be in possession of a folded knife which they suspected was an offensive and therefore illegal weapon. He was then arrested. Ms Mosby has contended that the police lacked probable cause for this arrest. This is a difficult issue because one of the guiding principles of US law is that each case is considered on it's individual and specific merits. Therefore I cannot give you a definitive opinion until Ms Mosby presents said knife.

However it is generally held that to be classed as an offensive and therefore illegal weapon a knife needs to be operable by one hand meaning a dagger type weapon, a spring-loaded folding knife or a folding knife that can be swung open by the use of a thumb. Folding knives where the blade can be locked into position can also be considered illegal. Another main deciding issue of whether a knife is illegal or not is the size of the blade.

Obviously police cannot be expected to make decisions about the design, size an shape of each weapon on the street. So unless it is clearly obvious to a reasonable person that a knife is so small that it cannot be used as a weapon  - less then 3 inches generally - possession of any type of blade provides probable cause to make an arrest for the offence. After all decisions about the style of blade and whether there is a defence of reasonable apprehension of danger can be decided either prior to charging or at Court.

As such I think it is fair to say that Ms Mosby is not off to the best of starts in this case. The Medical Examiner has gone on to allege that Mr Gray sustained his injuries whilst in the police van. However Mr Gray was complaining of said injury prior to being placed in the police van. That's the sort of thing that's going to require at lot of explaining

Meanwhile in South Carolina police Micheal Slager is approaching his fifth week in detention without legal representation or judicial oversight on an utterly unsustainable murder charge. So although they may be able to scrap together an imperfect self-defence manslaughter charge whatever the Lynch-mob are campaigning for here it doesn't tally with any principle of justice I'm familiar with.