6 cops charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Yahoo News.

State Attorney Marilyn Mosby talks to the media. Yahoo News

Six police officers have been charged for the death of Freddie Gray. Yahoo News. The officers have been charged with different crimes, including 2nd degree murder, manslaughter, misconduct in office, and false imprisonment. Only one officer was charged with 2nd degree murder, which in Maryland, requires a callus disregard for human life. The prosecution also claims that Gray was arrested illegally with no probable cause. The medical examiner found that the cause of death was because Gray had hit his head on a bolt that was jutting out, though why he hit the bolt has not been established. In the initial report, a fellow prisoner claimed that it sounded like Gray had hurt himself, but he has subsequently changed his story. 

My Comment:

Before I get into anything else, I want to say something. If this prosecution is due to the pressure put on by the protesters, rioters and looters that turned Baltimore into a madhouse and not the actual facts of the case, then this a huge miscarriage of justice. It is disgusting when people are charged with crimes that they wouldn't have otherwise been charged with just because a small minority of people want it to happen without ever hearing any evidence. 

That being said, there is something to discuss here. First, the false imprisonment charge is ludicrous. In Illinois vs Wardlow, the U.S. Supreme Court found that running away from the cops was considered reasonable suspicion if it happened in a high crime area. That's pretty much exactly what happened in the Freddie Gray case, so they had reasonable suspicion to stop him. He was charged with possession of a switchblade though there is some question if the knife is an actual switchblade, but that shouldn't justify a charge of false imprisonment. 

My guess is that the false imprisonment charge is to get the cops to flip on each other so one can be made out to be a scapegoat. Prosecutors routinely charge higher then they can convict in order to get plea deals and witnesses. If they do manage to get someone to flip then they will have a much easier time getting a conviction for murder and manslaughter. 

As for the 2nd degree murder charge, it's actually easier to prove then the false imprisonment charge. Both 2nd degree depraved heart murder and manslaughter does not actually require malice. They just require that the defendant either knew or should have known that their actions could have resulted in death. 

Of the two, 2nd degree murder will be much harder to prove. An example would be a person shooting a gun into a crowd. Obviously that would have a very high chance of killing someone even if you didn't mean to. The only way I can think of this applying in this case is if the police intentionally tried to hurt Gray while driving by slamming on the breaks or making sharp turns. They would have to prove that they wanted to hurt him, even if they didn't want to kill him. That would be almost impossible to prove without someone admitting to it. 

Manslaughter would be a bit easier to prove since you could argue that not following policy and putting Gray in a seat belt had a very good chance of killing him. If the defense could prove that the officers didn't intend to hurt Gray it would be manslaughter, but if they hurt Gray on purpose it would be 2nd degree murder. 

So how does this case turn out? It is very hard to tell right now without seeing any of the evidence, which is something everyone should keep in mind. Right now it depends on if there are any witnesses that say the cops did something wrong. If someone comes out and says that the police were intentionally trying to hurt Gray then they stand a very good chance of being convicted. If they don't, it is still possible to get a manslaughter conviction based on the fact that he didn't have his seat belt on. But considering one witness has said, though he has now recanted, that Gray was trying to hurt himself, it is possible that there is some reasonable doubt in the case. You can't convict someone of manslaughter if their victim killed themselves. My prediction is that the cops walk due to that discrepancy, barring some new evidence.