Monday, November 30, 2015

Jury Selection For Freddie Gray's Trial --Madeleine Norton, 4th period

Beginning Monday, Court will start to choose jury members for the trial of an officer involved in the death of Freddie Gray based off of evidence and knowledge of the case. It is also to be noted that movements like Black Lives Matter and rioting have again been stirred up due to the in justice apparently surrounding Gray's death.
All seventy-five of the jurors questioned had heard of the incident, several members having family who were also in law enforcement. Many expressed deep emotions for the case, and others gave indications of having been charged/in jail or victimized in a crime. These seventy-five will be dismissed and replaced by a new set of seventy-five jurors soon-to-be-interviewed tomorrow.

In accordance to the officer and his crimes, Fox News stated today "William Porter is one of six officers charged in the death of Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died April 19 of a severe spinal injury he suffered while in police custody. Porter, who is also black, is accused of failing to get medical help for Gray during several stops made by the police van that carried Gray on a 45-minute trip. At the end, officers found Gray unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital and died a week later."

Although not mentioned until later in the article, many homicides and violent riots had a occurred a while after Gray's death, and it seems to have definitely spiked the crime rate up a large percentage. This and the amendment centering around right to a fair and speedy trial (#6) deeply connect, and it shows that our government still upholds important parts of our constitution, even if modern-day members of law enforcement question and retaliate against these freedoms/unalienable rights/constitutional values.

Article in further detail here: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/11/30/high-stakes-for-baltimore-as-freddie-gray-trials-begin/

1 comment:

  1. This jury selection is extremely important as we have seen how bad jury's have resulted in bad decisions. So it's important a good jury is chosen and justice is served.

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