quote:

The jury requested a transcript of witness testimony. Judge denied the request.

Jurors must rely on memory and their notes.

Why is this? Why can't they review the testimony if it is part of the court record?

That surprised me too.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015...t-judge-says-no.html

Jurors deliberating the fate of an officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray have asked the judge for a copy of a transcript from a witness, but the judge has refused to give it to them.

The jurors have made several requests since they began deliberating Monday. The judge has granted some of them and refused others, saying they were not part of the evidence.

It's not clear exactly what witness transcript they were seeking Wednesday.

If anyone learns of the juror vote count results, please post here. Doesn't look like its public yet.

quote:

Originally posted by Wino:
If anyone learns of the juror vote count results, please post here. Doesn't look like its public yet.

I doubt it ever will be.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGguy229:

quote:

The jury requested a transcript of witness testimony. Judge denied the request.

Jurors must rely on memory and their notes.

Why is this? Why can't they review the testimony if it is part of the court record?

It appears to vary by jurisdiction. A lot of them say it's because the transcript has to be verified and certified as accurate or it could cause problems. The jurors are supposed to take notes and then review the evidence that is submitted.

Some jurisdictions video testimony and allow it to be reviewed by jurors. Baltimore does not.

After studying the evolution of this case, in particular Mosby's rush to charge the officers, I feel that her primary motive was to make a name for herself by pandering to the BLM type.

As what happens often in life, lying to obtain an unfair goal often backfires. "The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry".

Hopefully the Freddy Gray case will be the end of the careers of both Mosby and Mayor Rawlings-Blake. Perhaps others who are so inclined will now think twice about such tactics. "You can fool all of the people some of the time...but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time".

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20151221-story.html

Police Officer William G. Porter will be retried in the death of Freddie Gray on June 13, according to court officials.

The court said Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr. remains on schedule to go to trial on Jan. 6.

Goodson faces the most serious charge — second-degree murder — of the six officers charged in Gray's arrest and death.

The rescheduling of Porter's trial this summer means he will likely not take the stand against Goodson or White, asserting his 5th Amendment right not to incriminate himself ahead of his own trial.

My guess is they will offer Officer Porter a hell of a plea bargain so he will be able to testify in the Goodson trial.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wcb6092,

c1Steve,

Rawlings-Blake has already said she is not running for Mayor again.

The Baltimore officer who recently shot a man who tired to rob him was also a prosecution witness in the trial of William Porter.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/04/...-trial-freddie-gray/

Thursday's testimony started off with John Bilheimer, a 17-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department who said he had taught defendant Porter his emergency vehicle operation's course at the police academy in 2012.

Prosecutors quickly focused in on a section of the course dealing with transporting people in police custody, showing through testimony that Porter learned at that time about "secure seat restraints," or seat belts, and that they were for the safety of the person being transported.

The course also taught, however, the decision to use them was a case-by-case decision so as to not jeopardize officer safety.

Capt. Martin Barnes, a veteran of 18 years with the Baltimore Police Department and former supervisor of professional standards and accountability, testified that new department policies were published on April 3, including an order now requiring seat belts on those being transported in the police vans.

More detailed instructions on this new requirement stated the seat belt was to be put on the waist or upper body so the suspect "can't get out of the seat belt and injure themselves."

The defense countered by saying that Porter didn't receive notice of the new policy until April 9, three days before Gray was transported, and there is no way of knowing whether Porter actually read the 80-page attachment that explained the new rule.

It was one of 41 emails Porter received that day.

Seems to me that if Porter has not had a certificate of training for said policy dated before the incident or a signed department memo about it, they cannot prove that he was properly trained in said policy guidelines.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
Seems to me that if Porter has not had a certificate of training for said policy dated before the incident or a signed department memo about it, they cannot prove that he was properly trained in said policy guidelines.

In some departments, mere opening of the email acknowledges receipt of the email and its contents.......of course reading through an 80 page document would take most the shift and then any questions would have to go to a supervisor, who is still reading it.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20151228-story.html

Officer Caesar Goodson was the van driver.

The second-degree murder trial of Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr. in the death of Freddie Gray will begin with pre-trial motions on Jan. 6, but jury selection will not begin until Jan. 11, court officials said Monday.

The Circuit Court for Baltimore had long listed Jan. 6 as the start date for Goodson's trial.

Goodson, the driver of the van in which Gray was injured, was the only officer charged with second-degree murder — the most serious of all the charges.

The state has listed Porter as a material witness in Goodson's trial, though it is unclear whether Porter will take the stand. With his own retrial scheduled this summer, he could invoke his right not to take the stand to avoid incriminating himself.

Several motions have yet to be ruled on in the Goodson case by Judge Barry G. Williams, including about the admissibility of certain evidence.

Many other motions have already been settled, including failed defense efforts to move the trial out of Baltimore.

**************************

If Officer Porter does not testify at Goodson's trial, the prior testimony he gave at his own trial cannot be introduced.

That could make it hard for the prosecutor to introduce evidence about what the van driver had heard or seen.

Goodson was the only officer who never gave a statement after Gray was injured. The other 5 gave statements w/o realizing they were going to be charged.

If Goodson doesn't testify in his own defense, the "evidence" is even more based on conjecture and assumption by the prosecutors.

The first trial was given intense coverage in Baltimore. It is widely known what Porter testified. This could be a real test of the jury only considering what is introduced during the particular trial under consideration.

Baltimore homicides have reached 340 for 2015.

This is a 60 % increase over 2014.

The most people killed in a year was in 1993, when there were 353 killings but also about 100,000 more residents.

quote:

Many other motions have already been settled, including failed defense efforts to move the trial out of Baltimore.

Just to keep things in perspective...

quote:

The most people killed in a year was in 1993, when there were 353 killings but also about 100,000 more residents.

There's a good chance that 14 people could be murdered on the streets of Balt. NYE alone. So keep your hopes up, I'm sure they'll hit their goal.

Jurors asked not to talk, documents filed under seal in Freddie Gray case

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20160102-story.html

Judge Barry G. Williams has taken extraordinary steps to limit the information that becomes public in the criminal case against six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, including asking jurors not to talk about the first trial even after he declared a mistrial.

Reached by The Baltimore Sun, attorney Susan Elgin confirmed that she had served as a juror in the trial of Officer William G. Porter. After the 12 jurors deadlocked, she said, Williams asked them not to discuss the case with the news media.

"I would very much like to talk about my experience as a juror," said Elgin, a family law attorney who has served as chair of the Maryland Commission for Women. "However, Judge Williams asked the jurors not to discuss our service with the press. I want to honor that request and respect the process."

The judge's request was one of several steps taken to limit the public release of information in the case.

The jurors were kept anonymous, and during the trial they were instructed not to discuss the case with friends, family or each other.

After court proceedings conclude, jurors typically are free to talk to anyone.

In addition to his request for juror silence, Williams has sealed a number of court filings.

While judges frequently shield filings from public view for a variety of reasons, including to protect the safety of a witness, it can be difficult to discern why Williams took such a step in the Porter case.

notice of some sealed documents never appeared on the website specifically set up by the judiciary to post filings and other updates about the Gray case.

References to more than a dozen were discovered by The Baltimore Sun during a review of an antiquated court docket system on a terminal in the corner of a court clerk's office. That system is rarely accessed by the public.

The public also can access the hard-copy file in Porter's case, but that has been unavailable for review at the clerk's office since before the trial began on Nov. 30. A court clerk said the file has not been returned since it was taken by the judge for Porter's trial.

Part of jury selection in the Porter case was conducted behind closed doors. And many discussions among Williams, prosecutors and Porter's defense team during court proceedings were conducted at the judge's bench under the cover of white noise, even when jurors were not present.

The documents included an internal police document in which police officers wrote that Freddie Gray had once complained of a back problem. Williams had sealed that document during Porter's trial when he ruled that prosecutors committed a discovery violation by failing to disclose it to defense attorneys.

As for Williams' asking that jurors refrain from speaking to the press about the Porter case, Weaver said the judge's request is not legally binding. No public court order was issued. Jurors can shed light on their deliberations and reveal how they voted on the charges.

"It's standard in a high-profile case for a judge to remind jurors that they don't have to talk to anybody about the trial. It's permissible for a judge to recommend that jurors don't talk. It's unconstitutional for a judge to order jurors not to talk," he said.

"The judge has a lot of power over you when you're standing in front of him, but once you've left that courthouse, unless you have some tangible connection back to that case, that judge has zero power over you."

************************

I am surprised that the jury vote has not come out. Even in an anonymous source manner.

I think its interesting that a lawyer was on the jury. Granted a family lawyer but still...

I will be interested to see what the outcome of the first jury deliberation was, but I think its going to be a while....

Is it not unheard of to have a fully trained and practicing LAWYER on a jury pool? Very odd...

I'm of the mind that it would not be advantageous to the prosecution have an attorney on the jury. An attorney should be more likely to make determinations based on facts, rather than on emotional ones. Unless that attorney were to be a dishonest plant to sway other jurors because of their "legal expertise".

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20160105-story.html

Baltimore Officer Porter seeks to avoid testifying at Goodson, White trials

the state plans to propose that Porter be given immunity, so that he can speak without his testimony being used against him at his retrial in June.

Officer Goodson was the van driver; his trial is to start Monday (jury selection).

Some pretrial filings are happening this week.

In a motion filed Monday to quash a subpoena requiring him to appear as a witness at Goodson 's trial, Porter's attorneys say he plans to assert his rights under the state and federal constitutions to decline to testify.

Porter also plans to decline to testify in the trial of Sgt. Alicia White.

"… Calling Officer Porter at the Goodson and White trials will not only result in his rights being violated, but will necessitate a quagmire in which rights are trampled on all sides in the ensuing free-for-all," his attorneys wrote.

Porter's attorneys say the state plans to propose that Porter be given immunity, so that he can speak without his testimony being used against him at his retrial in June.

The defense says the state believes that move would eliminate his ability to invoke Fifth Amendment protections, and he will have to answer under penalty of contempt.

His attorneys also say the prosecution called Porter a liar on multiple occasions during his trial for involuntary manslaughter and other charges that ended in a mistrial last month.

They also note that a federal investigation into Gray's death from injuries sustained in police custody is ongoing, potentially exposing him to charges from federal authorities.

"The state wishes to compel Porter, through the farce of a grant of immunity, to lay a foundation for evidence that the state has deemed as constituting an obstruction of justice and perjury," they wrote.

****************************

This is another under handed move by the prosecutors. These trials are getting intense day by day media coverage.

With the jury pool coming from Baltimore, how could they possibly argue that whatever Porter said in Officer Goodson's trial wouldn't be used against him in June ? The jury pool would be poisoned.

The prosecutors know if they don't get convictions against Goodson, this whole thing explodes.