Freddie Gray Indictment.

Moments after the end of the second Eurovision Song Contest semi-final it was announced that a Grand Jury in Baltimore, Maryland had voted to indict six police officers over the death of Freddie Gray. Despite the 5th amendment of the US Constitution requiring a Grand Jury indictment be issued before a person is deprived of their liberty the six police officers in question have been held on bail for the last 20 days.

The big problem in discussing the case is that all of the evidence is being kept as a closely guarded secret. In fact the lawyers defending the six accused have complained that the prosecution has failed to disclose a single piece of evidence which is essential in mounting a defence. When those lawyers took to the media to complain about the failure to disclose the Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosby applied for a gagging order to prevent her conduct being discussed in the media. Due to to Ms Mosby's fondness of a press conference I will be very interested to know if such an order has been granted.

However from what has already been reported in the media I suspect Ms Mosby's argument is that Mr Gray ran from the police so the police chased him down and unlawfully arrested him as punishment for running from them. As further extra-judicial punishment they gave him a so-called "rough ride" in a police van. This resulted in his death. What is interesting is that Ms Mosby has now retracted the charge of "unlawful imprisonment" which hints at her conceding that the knife which Mr Gray was arrested for was in fact illegal and therefore his arrest was entirely lawful.

To my mind this admission holes Ms Mosby's entire theory of racist officers carrying out an extra-judicial punishment beneath the waterline. As such if the Judge at the accused's July 2nd (2/7/15) arraignment finds that there is a reasonable chance that a properly directed Jury could convict then there are serious questions to be asked as to whether Baltimore can conduct a fair trial in this case.

22:55 on 21/5/15 (UK date).