Freddy Gray Payout

[Benton]

(06-09-2016, 04:21 PM)bfine32 Wrote: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/judge-finds-prosecutors-withheld-evidence-freddie-gray-officer-154226833--abc-news-topstories.html


Does this state prosecutor still have a job?

Quote: Goodson's attorneys have argued that prosecutors withheld statements made last year by Donta Allen, a key witness. Allen was picked up by the Baltimore police van after Gray.

In his original statement to police in April last year, Allen said he heard loud banging coming from Gray's side of the vehicle. He gave a similar statement in a separate interview with prosecutors a month later, but the state never turned it over as evidence to defense attorneys. Judge Williams found today that prosecutors committed a so-called Brady Violation because Allen's May 2015 statement was deemed exculpatory evidence and it's the state's duty to divulge this information to the defense.

The prosecutors should have been more forward about the interview, but it doesn't sound like it was anything that would have helped the defense (a witness hearing the banging around would seem to be better for the prosecution, but it doesn't sound like Allen actually heard or saw anything specific). To me, it sounds more like the defense is just trying to find something — anything — to get it declared a mistrial.