Vox - Developments in Freddie Gray case and Baltimore protestshttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2016-06-23T12:40:02-04:00http://www.vox.com/rss/stream/82716022016-06-23T12:40:02-04:002016-06-23T12:40:02-04:00The only police officer facing murder charges in Freddie Gray case was acquitted
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<img alt="Baltimore police officer Caesar Goodson, Jr. was acquitted of all charges for the death of Freddie Gray." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/n5ybu0rYF1UMdPmvG33Yx-2yMfY=/0x142:480x502/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/49934613/GettyImages-471874366.0.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Baltimore police officer Caesar Goodson, Jr. was acquitted of all charges for the death of Freddie Gray. | <a href='http://www.gettyimages.com/license/471874366'>Getty Images</a></figcaption>
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<p id="sbTfUZ">Caesar Goodson Jr., the only police officer facing a murder charge in the death of 25-year-old Baltimore resident <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/12/14/10123478/freddie-gray-baltimore-police-trial-verdict">Freddie Gray</a> last April, was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/judge-to-deliver-verdict-for-police-officer-charged-with-murder-in-freddie-gray-case/2016/06/22/7a0e015b-3b12-4294-8b72-84a36e1715cd_story.html">acquitted of all charges</a> Thursday.</p>
<p id="JGoSJj">"There has been no credible evidence presented at this trial that the defendant intended any crime to happen," Judge Barry Williams <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/23/freddie-gray-trial-caesar-goodson-acquitted-baltimore">said</a>. "Seemingly the state wants this court to assume simply because Mr. Gray was injured … that the defendant intentionally gave Mr. Gray a rough ride."</p>
<p id="Oa1EqR">Goodson, 46, was the third officer of six to be tried for Gray’s death, and his charges were among the most severe. He faced charges of reckless endangerment, manslaughter, and, notably second-degree <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8529761/freddie-gray-depraved-murder">depraved-heart murder</a>, as the police van driver whose reckless driving prosecutors alleged caused Gray’s fatal neck injury.</p>
<p id="qBUkuY">According to an <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-gray/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-autopsy-20150623-story.html#page=1">autopsy report</a>, Gray’s injury was likely the result of the police van suddenly decelerating. Gray died a week later. However, the depraved-heart murder charge rested on whether prosecutors proved Goodson’s intent.</p>
<p id="X2iNaz">"The person must show some sort of viciousness or contempt for human life. It is greater than 'negligence' where a person should have been aware of the risk, but failed to see it. The person actually created the risk of harm," Tod W. Burke, Radford University's associate dean and professor of criminal justice, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8529761/freddie-gray-depraved-murder">explained to Vox last year</a>. "With a 'depraved heart' it must be shown that the person committed the homicide 'wantonly.'"</p>
<h3 id="ZIMEVj">This verdict deals yet another blow to the Black Lives Matter movement</h3>
<p id="NgRhzG">The Freddie Gray case is one of the most high-profile cases of the Black Lives Matter movement, and without convictions could have lasting effects.</p>
<p id="vJZvQx">As Vox’s <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8530705/freddie-gray-protesters-win">German Lopez</a> pointed out last May, Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s announcement of the charges against the six officers validated protestors’ outrage — within Baltimore but also elsewhere — in a case where officers "were at the very least criminally negligent, if not downright abusive."</p>
<p id="UPBlDv">Nonetheless, Goodson is the third officer yet to be convicted of any wrongdoing, and, without a conviction from Goodson, who faced the most severe charges, it is <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/freddie-gray-case-puts-focus-on-depraved-heart-murder-charge-1465235573">unlikely</a> the remaining three will be charged, either.</p>
<p id="A0lkME">Police officers are rarely convicted in criminal cases. According to the <a href="http://www.policemisconduct.net/2010-npmsrp-police-misconduct-statistical-report/#_Prosecuting_Police_Misconduct">National Police Misconduct Project</a>, only 33 percent of police officers charged in 3,238 criminal cases from April 2009 to December 2010 were convicted.</p>
<p id="ybL3uf">From 2010 to 2014, the <a href="http://aclu-md.org/press_room/214">American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland</a> reported that police officers were charged for police-involved shootings less than 2 percent of the time. Sixty-nine percent of these victims were black and 41 percent were unarmed.</p>
<p id="Sqw8LE">Four cases remain to be decided related to Gray’s death — three officers’ trials are pending and the retrial of William Porter is also scheduled for September. However, Goodson’s acquittal makes it far less likely that justice for Gray’s death will be served.</p>
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<h3>Watch: Why police are so rarely prosecuted</h3>
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https://www.vox.com/2016/6/23/12013002/officer-caesar-goodson-freddie-grayVictoria M. Massie2015-09-02T16:35:00-04:002015-09-02T16:35:00-04:00The homicide of Freddie Gray: 6 Baltimore police officers on trial
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<img alt="Black Lives Matter protesters in Baltimore." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/A_hdF-1LpVJ4pjbCcBLdP2oPeBg=/52x0:2947x2171/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46174180/459584008.0.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Black Lives Matter protesters in Baltimore. | <a href='http://www.gettyimages.com'>Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images</a></figcaption>
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<p><span>On Wednesday, hearings began in the trials of six Baltimore police officers accused of killing</span><span> </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence" target="_blank">Freddie Gray</a><span>. The case is a very big deal: It's the most high-profile attempt at holding police legally accountable for a black man's death since the police shooting of </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/mike-brown-protests-ferguson-missouri" target="_blank">Michael Brown</a><span> in Ferguson, Missouri, led to nationwide protests over cops' use of force.</span></p>
<p><span>The hearings on Wednesday </span><a href="http://live.baltimoresun.com/Event/Live_coverage_First_hearing_in_Freddie_Gray_case_begins_in_Baltimore" target="_blank">focused</a><span> on how the trial should proceed. The judge made three major decisions: Each of the six police officers will be tried separately, the charges against the cops won't be dismissed at this point in the trial, and Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby will stay on the case despite accusations of bias. The case will now proceed into six trials, which could result in decades of prison time for the officers if they are convicted.</span></p>
<p>The case draws from a long and sometimes brutal history of policing in Baltimore — which is exemplified not just in Gray's death, but in dozens of other examples from the city's past. But Gray's death put these issues in the national spotlight, leading to protests and riots as demonstrators called for an end to <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/29/8687205/criminal-justice-racism" target="_blank">racial disparities</a> in the criminal justice system.</p>
<h3>Freddie Gray suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while under police custody</h3>
<p>Freddie Gray suffered a fatal spinal cord injury on April 12, when he was tossed around in the back of a police van without a seatbelt fastened. He died a week later, in a death deemed a homicide by a medical examiner.</p>
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<div class="vox-cardstack"><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/freddie-gray-death-police">Freddie Gray died after he was arrested by Baltimore police — and no one knows how</a></div>
<p>Baltimore police have a particularly <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-riots-history-police-violence">bad history</a> with brutality. A September 2014 report by the <a target="_blank" href="http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/police-settlements/">Baltimore Sun's Mark Puente</a>, for example, found that the city had paid about $5.7 million since 2011 to more than 100 people — most of whom were black — who claimed officers beat them up. Police didn't admit fault in the cases, and the local union said the high cost was meant to avoid steeper costs from expensive lawsuits, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/23/us/baltimore-freddie-gray-death/">CNN's Holly Yan, Ashley Fantz, and Kimberly Hutcherson</a>.</p>
<h3>The charges against the police officers involved in Freddie Gray's death</h3>
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<p class="caption">(Andrew Burton/Getty Images)</p>
<p>Here's the full list of the criminal charges, taken from a <a target="_blank" href="http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/05/21/city-states-atty-to-speak-on-freddie-gray-case/">release</a> handed out by the state attorney's office:</p>
<p><b>Officer Caesar Goodson Jr.</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Second-degree depraved-heart murder, 30 years</li>
<li>Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years</li>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Manslaughter by vehicle (gross negligence), 10 years</li>
<li>Manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence), 3 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Officer William Porter</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years</li>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Lieutenant Brian Rice</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years</li>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Officer Edward Nero</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Officer Garrett Miller</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Sergeant Alicia White</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years</li>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<h3>Protests over Gray's death were very heated, leading to some rioting</h3>
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<p class="caption">Demonstrators in Baltimore protest agains the death of Freddie Gray. (Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)</p>
<p>As the investigation into Gray's death dragged on for weeks, public anger rose against what <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/19/us/baltimore-freddie-gray-death/">many saw</a> as an attempt by the city government and police department to cover up what happened to Gray.</p>
<p>Some of the protests were particularly tense, breaking out into riots. On April 25, after hours of large, peaceful demonstrations, some protesters <a target="_blank" href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/windows-broken-scuffles-break-out-at-baltimore-protests?utm_term=.vuZk6XXmZK#.mmwJ4rDnxN">began smashing</a> car and business windows and looting stores. At one point, police <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/25/8498435/freddie-gray-protests-riots" target="_blank">briefly closed off</a> the Camden Yards baseball stadium, keeping people at the Baltimore Orioles/Boston Red Sox game stuck inside until police gave the all-clear.</p>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Smashed police vehicles outside <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/camdenyards?src=hash">#camdenyards</a> <a href="http://t.co/O8WS4Jk0EU">pic.twitter.com/O8WS4Jk0EU</a></p>
— jelani cobb (@jelani9) <a href="https://twitter.com/jelani9/status/592105954356887552">April 25, 2015</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Here's the video of people smashing cop cars outside Camden Yards. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreddieGray?src=hash">#FreddieGray</a> <a href="http://t.co/4O7TD1QTls">pic.twitter.com/4O7TD1QTls</a></p>
— jelani cobb (@jelani9) <a href="https://twitter.com/jelani9/status/592108270287978496">April 25, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>Riots broke out on April 27, when demonstrators looted, burned <a target="_blank" href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-riots/bs-md-ci-baltimore-riots-what-we-know-20150428-story.html">144 vehicles and 15 buildings</a>, and threw bricks, bottles, and other objects at police, injuring <a href="http://ktla.com/2015/04/28/baltimore-protestors-throw-rocks-cinder-blocks-at-police-dozens-arrested/" target="_blank">at least 20 officers</a>. Police responded by trying to contain the crowds with tear gas, pepper spray, and other nonlethal weapons. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake also imposed a citywide, 10 pm curfew for less than one week, and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan temporarily enlisted the state's National Guard to contain the violence.</p>
<p>
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<blockquote lang="en" class="twitter-tweet">
<p>All out war between kids and police <a href="http://t.co/19y4YJ2Y5X">pic.twitter.com/19y4YJ2Y5X</a></p>
— Erica L. Green (@EricaLG) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricaLG/status/592778062527356931">April 27, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote lang="en" class="twitter-tweet">
<p><a href="http://t.co/MqmpIRuf6Z">pic.twitter.com/MqmpIRuf6Z</a></p>
— Arthur Delaney (@ArthurDelaneyHP) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArthurDelaneyHP/status/592778260561399808">April 27, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>A police car and van burned on the streets of Baltimore. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BaltimoreRiots?src=hash">#BaltimoreRiots</a> <a href="http://t.co/Q4k6W9oQLK">pic.twitter.com/Q4k6W9oQLK</a></p>
— Brian Todd (@BrianToddCNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianToddCNN/status/592824544072699908">April 27, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
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<p>It's common for the public and leaders to dismiss these types of violent outbursts as senseless. President Barack Obama, for example, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/28/8508981/obama-baltimore-riots" target="_blank">described</a> the rioters as "criminals and thugs" who were taking advantage of the tense situation in Baltimore. "They're destroying and undermining opportunities and businesses in their own communities," he said.</p>
<p>But historians and experts say these types of outbursts are rooted in legitimate anger toward a system that has in many ways failed them. "People participate in this type of event for a real reason," Darnell Hunt, a UCLA professor who's studied the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, said. "It's not just people taking advantage. It's not just anger and frustration at the immediate or proximate cause. It's always some underlying issues."</p>
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<div class="chorus-snippet s-related">
<span class="s-related__title">Related</span> <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/30/8518681/protests-riots-work">Riots are destructive, dangerous, and scary — but can lead to serious social reforms</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/29/8513775/baltimore-riots-local-opinions">In West Baltimore, some residents see rioting as a rational response to daily despair</a>
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<p>In Baltimore, the anger was aimed not just at the <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/freddie-gray-death-police" target="_blank">questions</a> surrounding Gray's death and a police department that has been subject to <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-riots-history-police-violence" target="_blank">allegations of brutality</a> in the past, but at widespread <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-protests-economic-inequality" target="_blank">economic disparities</a> that have left neighborhoods such as Freddie Gray's with populations of which more than half the residents don't have jobs. Residents weren't lashing out in violence just to take advantage of the situation — they were unleashing anger that's long existed in these communities.</p>
<p>"I was one of the ones who started the peaceful protests … the first seven days [after Gray's death], when it was fine and dandy," William Stewart, a West Baltimore resident who didn't participate in the riots, told <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/29/8513775/baltimore-riots-local-opinions" target="_blank">Vox's Jenée Desmond-Harris</a>. "I walked about 101 miles in peace. But if you protest peacefully, they don't give a shit."</p>
<h3>Police are much more likely to kill black suspects</h3>
<p><img src="https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3591318/police_shooting_by_race.0.png"></p>
<p class="caption">(Joe Posner/Vox)</p>
<p>An analysis of the available <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6051043/how-many-people-killed-police-statistics-homicide-official-black">FBI data</a> by <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6051043/how-many-people-killed-police-statistics-homicide-official-black">Vox's Dara Lind</a> shows that US police kill black people at disproportionate rates: Black people accounted for 31 percent of police shooting victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population. Although the data is incomplete, since it's based on voluntary reports from police agencies around the country, it highlights the vast disparities in how police use force.</p>
<p><span>Black teens were 21 times as likely as white teens to be shot and killed by police between 2010 and 2012</span>, according to <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/deadly-force-in-black-and-white">a ProPublica analysis</a> of the FBI data. <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/deadly-force-in-black-and-white">ProPublica</a> reported: "One way of appreciating that stark disparity, ProPublica's analysis shows, is to calculate how many more whites over those three years would have had to have been killed for them to have been at equal risk. The number is jarring — 185, more than one per week."</p>
<p>There were several high-profile police killings in the past year involving black men and boys. In Ferguson, <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/mike-brown-protests-ferguson-missouri/mike-brown-police-officer-darren-wilson">Darren Wilson</a> killed <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/mike-brown-protests-ferguson-missouri/mike-brown-ferguson-MO-protests">Michael Brown</a>, an unarmed black 18-year-old, triggering <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/25/7279783/protests-ferguson-fire">nationwide protests</a>. <span>In North Charleston, South Carolina, Michael Slager was charged with murder and fired from the police department after shooting </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/8/8368197/walter-scott-police-shooting">Walter Scott</a><span>, who was fleeing and unarmed at the time. </span><span>In Ohio, police killed 22-year-old </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/9/24/6839953/video-john-crawford-walmart-police-beavercreek-ohio-toy-gun">John Crawford</a><span> and 12-year-old </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/24/7275297/tamir-rice-police-shooting">Tamir Rice</a><span> in separate shootings after mistaking toy guns for actual weapons. In New York City, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo killed </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/12/3/7327745/eric-garner-grand-jury-decision">Eric Garner</a><span> by putting the unarmed 43-year-old black man in a chokehold.</span></p>
<div class="vox-cardstack"><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/mike-brown-protests-ferguson-missouri/mike-brown-ferguson-MO-protests">13 things you should know about the Michael Brown shooting</a></div>
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<h3>Police are rarely charged and prosecuted for use of force</h3>
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<p>The criminal charges against the police officers involved in Freddie Gray's death are surprising because police are <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/8/8369769/police-shooting-charges-convictions">very rarely prosecuted for using deadly force</a> — and not just because the law allows them wide latitude to use force on the job. Sometimes the investigations fall onto the same police department the officer is from — as is the case in Gray's death — which creates a major conflict of interest. Other times, the best evidence comes from eyewitnesses, who can be <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/25/7281037/ferguson-eyewitness-testimony">notoriously unreliable</a> and may be viewed as less trustworthy in the public eye than a police officer.</p>
<p>"There is a tendency to believe an officer over a civilian, in terms of credibility," <a href="http://www.krlawphila.com/firm-attorneys/david-rudovsky/">David Rudovsky</a>, a civil rights lawyer who co-wrote <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Police-Misconduct-Litigation-Michael-Avery/dp/0836610997">Prosecuting Misconduct: Law and Litigation</a></em>, told Vox's <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/25/7173695/ferguson-police-officer-prosecution">Amanda Taub</a>. "And when an officer is on trial, reasonable doubt has a lot of bite. A prosecutor needs a very strong case before a jury will say that somebody who we generally trust to protect us has so seriously crossed the line as to be subject to a conviction."</p>
<p>An analysis from the <a href="http://aclu-md.org/press_room/214" target="_blank">American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland</a> found that police were charged in less than 2 percent of police-involved killings between 2010 and 2014. In these killings, 69 percent of the victims were black, even though they make up 29 percent of Maryland's population. About 41 percent of the victims were unarmed.</p>
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<p>If police are charged, they're very rarely convicted. The <a target="_blank" href="http://www.policemisconduct.net/2010-npmsrp-police-misconduct-statistical-report/#_Prosecuting_Police_Misconduct">National Police Misconduct Reporting Project</a> analyzed 3,238 criminal cases against police officers from April 2009 through December 2010. They found that only 33 percent were convicted, and only 36 percent of officers who were convicted ended up serving prison sentences. Both of those are about half the rate at which members of the public are convicted or incarcerated.</p>
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<p>To protesters, holding police accountable with charges and convictions is important not just to punish some officers for wrongdoing — but to send a message to all police departments that brutality and excessive use of force won't be legally tolerated.</p>
<p>But the numbers suggest that it would be a truly rare situation if the officers involved in Gray's arrest were convicted of a crime. And without a conviction, it's likely tensions will remain high — which is why the trial is so important.</p>
<h3>Watch: Why filming the police is so important</h3>
<p><iframe src="https://www.vox.com/videos/iframe?id=56758" frameborder="0" seamless="true" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" name="56758-chorus-video-iframe"></iframe></p>
https://www.vox.com/2015/4/21/8461087/freddie-gray-baltimore-policeGerman Lopez2015-05-22T15:40:00-04:002015-05-22T15:40:00-04:00“Depraved heart murder” could put one Baltimore cop in prison for 30 years.
<figure>
<img alt="A demonstrator celebrates after the May 1 announcement of charges against the officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AoLafDzJxafRTQBIBapGjfn0-wY=/0x0:3000x2250/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46380518/GettyImages-471847846.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>A demonstrator celebrates after the May 1 announcement of charges against the officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest. | Andrew Burton/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><span>Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced that Thursday that a grand jury found probable cause to indict all six officers involved in the death of </span><a style="font-size: 1.3em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-protests-freddie-gray">Freddie Gray</a>.</p>
<p><span>Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died on April 19 from a spinal cord injury after an allegedly brutal arrest and being handcuffed in the back of a police van.</span></p>
<p>Mosby said the officers will be arraigned on July 2, on charges including manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and assault — as well as one charge that doesn't sound as familiar: depraved heart murder. It's listed under Officer Caesar Goodson's name on the list of indictments, and it carries a sentence of up to 30 years.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">One more try with the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/freddiegray?src=hash">#freddiegray</a> indictments: <a href="http://t.co/GcpRuHSfoL">pic.twitter.com/GcpRuHSfoL</a></p>
— Christian Schaffer (@chrisfromabc2) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisfromabc2/status/601495794630434817">May 21, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
<h3><span>What is depraved heart murder?</span></h3>
<p><span></span></p>
<p>"Depraved heart" murder is a description of a specific type of scenario and mindset that can lead a court to decide someone has committed murder. It's actually just one of the many specific kinds of murder you can be charged with if you kill someone in America. (For example, the legal doctrine of "felony murder," which some states use, means you can be charged with murder if you accidentally kill someone while committing a totally separate felony — like robbing a store).</p>
<p>Sometimes it's called "depraved-indifference murder," which means the same thing. Either way, it's how courts in some states talk about the actions of a defendant who demonstrated "callous disregard for human life" that ultimately killed someone. Most states — including Maryland, where Freddie Gray was killed — consider killing someone in this way a form of second-degree murder.</p>
<p>"The person must show some sort of viciousness or contempt for human life. It is greater than 'negligence' where a person should have been aware of the risk, but failed to see it. The person actually created the risk of harm," Tod W. Burke, Radford University's associate dean and professor of criminal justice, explained in an email to Vox. "With a 'depraved heart' it must be shown that the person committed the homicide 'wantonly.'"</p>
<h3>But what exactly do you have to do for a murder to be considered "depraved heart"?</h3>
<p>Burke said examples of people who might be convicted of depraved heart murder would include someone <span>who fires a gun into a crowded room, killing someone, or a person who drives</span><span> a car recklessly into a parade route, striking and killing a bystander.</span></p>
<p>The exact definition varies by state, and the best way to understand what it takes in Maryland is to look at what the courts have said in previous cases there. D<span>epraved heart murder was described by the judge in one frequently cited </span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.leagle.com/decision/1995645339Md306_1627.xml/ALSTON%20v.%20STATE">1986 case — <i>Robinson v. State</i></a><span><i>,</i> like this:</span></p>
<ul>
<li> <bq>"A depraved heart murder is often described as a wanton and willful killing. The term 'depraved heart' means something more than conduct amounting to a high or unreasonable risk to human life. The perpetrator must [or reasonably should] realize the risk his behavior has created to the extent that his conduct may be termed willful. Moreover, the conduct must contain an element of viciousness or contemptuous disregard for the value of human life which conduct characterizes that behavior as wanton.'</bq><bq>" <br></bq><bq><b><br>Translation:</b> M</bq><bq>ore than just being careless or reckless, the defendant — in the Gray case, Officer Goodson — should have known that what he was doing could risk a human life and simply didn't care.</bq> </li>
<li>"The critical feature of 'depraved heart' murder is that the act in question be committed 'under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life." <br><b><br>Translation: </b>The situation suggests that the defendant really didn't care at all whether someone died — this is a must for a finding of depraved heart murder.</li>
<li>The terms 'recklessness' or 'indifference,' often used to define the crime, do not preclude an act of intentional injury. They refer to 'recklessness' or 'indifference' to the ultimate consequence of the act — death — not to the act that produces that result." <br><b><br>Translation:</b> Although the definition uses the word "reckless" a lot, that doesn't mean this kind of murder only applies to mistakes. Even if the defendant harmed the victim on purpose, the murder still falls under the "depraved heart" category.</li>
</ul>
<p><bq></bq></p>
<h3>Was Goodson's conduct depraved?</h3>
<p><span>At her May 1 press conference announcing the charges, Mosby said Gray "suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet, and unrestrained" in the paddy wagon.</span></p>
<p><span></span><span>Once shackled, she said, he was placed on his stomach, head first on the floor of the vehicle. And s</span><span>he said Gray pleaded for medical help, saying he couldn't breathe and asking for his inhaler, but officers ignored him.</span></p>
<p>The Baltimore Sun reported that week that the city's police have a reputation for <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/28/8509065/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots" target="_blank">so-called "rough rides,"</a> when officers allegedly drive police vans recklessly in an attempt to knock around the passengers in the back — who are often shackled but not wearing seat belts. According to the Sun's <span>Doug Donovan and Mark Puente, the 2005 story of Dondi Johnson Sr., whose family received a $7.4 million settlement from the city, is the city's most "sensational": the 43-year-old plumber, who had been arrested for public urination, "</span><span>was handcuffed and placed in a transport van in good health. He emerged a quadriplegic."</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Whether Goodson took Gray on a "rough ride" that day — with a depraved heart, as Mosby said — will be decided in court. But in the meantime, the very existence of the indictments against the officers — especially Goodson's — seem to validate the concerns of protesters who suspected Gray was treated with "callous regard for human life." In other words, like his life didn't matter.</span></p>
<iframe src="https://www.vox.com/videos/iframe?id=60070" frameborder="0" seamless="true" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" name="60070-chorus-video-iframe"></iframe>
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8529761/freddie-gray-depraved-murderJenée Desmond-Harris2015-05-21T19:00:00-04:002015-05-21T19:00:00-04:00Read all the charges against the police officers involved in Freddie Gray's death
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1Qgy6i3PqKvvPJZHyG3Pp4YAySM=/0x0:3000x2250/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46251098/GettyImages-471815562.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Andrew Burton/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby on Thursday, May 21, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/21/8640305/charges-officers-freddie-gray" target="_blank">announced</a> a grand jury had indicted all six police officers involved in the arrest of <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence">Freddie Gray</a>, a 25-year-old black man who died of a spinal cord injury while under police custody.</p>
<p>Here's the full list of the criminal charges, taken from <a href="http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/05/21/city-states-atty-to-speak-on-freddie-gray-case/" target="_blank">a release</a> handed out by Mosby's office:</p>
<p><b>Officer Caesar Goodson Jr.</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Second-degree depraved-heart murder, 30 years</li>
<li>Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years</li>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Manslaughter by vehicle (gross negligence), 10 years</li>
<li>Manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence), 3 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Officer William Porter</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years</li>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Lieutenant Brian Rice</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years</li>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Officer Edward Nero</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Officer Garrett Miller</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Sergeant Alicia White</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years</li>
<li>Second-degree assault, 10 years</li>
<li>Misconduct in office</li>
<li>Reckless endangerment, 5 years</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<div class="vox-cardstack"><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-protests-freddie-gray">The Baltimore protests erupted after Freddie Gray's mysterious death</a></div>
<p> </p>
<p>
<script src="//embed.vox.com/cardstack.js"></script>
</p>
<h3>Watch: Why it's so important to film police</h3>
<p><iframe src="https://www.vox.com/videos/iframe?id=56758" frameborder="0" seamless="true" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" name="56758-chorus-video-iframe"></iframe></p>
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8530201/freddie-gray-criminal-chargesGerman Lopez2015-05-04T13:47:00-04:002015-05-04T13:47:00-04:00If Freddie Gray lived, he would've likely been placed in jail for a crime he didn't commit
<figure>
<img alt="Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby very likely wouldn't have highlighted Freddie Gray's unlawful arrest if she weren't investigating his death." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qVyi6jJ8plTkobXpgU6WWt-ci_8=/0x0:3000x2250/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46266180/GettyImages-471815562.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby very likely wouldn't have highlighted Freddie Gray's unlawful arrest if she weren't investigating his death. | Andrew Burton/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence">Freddie Gray</a> <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8530705/freddie-gray-protesters-win">shouldn't have been arrested</a>. Baltimore police accused him of possessing a switchblade during an altercation on April 12. But it turns out the knife wasn't a switchblade and was, therefore, legal in Baltimore. Those facts are now publicly known, but only after the investigation into Gray's death.</p>
<p>But what would have happened if Gray hadn't died of a spinal cord injury he received while under police custody? It's likely Gray's unjust arrest, just like many others across the country, would have gone unnoticed by the public at large — and Gray could have served some jail time, or worse, for a crime he didn't commit.</p>
<p></p>
<div class="chorus-snippet s-related">
<span class="s-related__title">Related</span> <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8530705/freddie-gray-protesters-win">Freddie Gray shouldn't have been arrested, and he shouldn't have died</a>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p>David Rocah, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, explained the scenario to Baltimore news station <a href="http://www.wbaltv.com/news/aclu-attorney-david-rocha-on-the-freddie-gray-case/32769272">WBAL-TV</a>.</p>
<p>"It is a travesty and a tragedy that the only reason we are looking into the facts of Freddie Gray's arrest is the fact that he's dead," Rocah said. "If he had not died, I think it is almost indisputable that what would have happened is he would have been processed in jail, he probably would have been … set <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/2/8534943/baltimore-bail-freddie-gray">a bail that he couldn't afford</a>, and he would have stayed in jail until he took a plea in order to get out of jail."</p>
<p>What's worse, Rocah suggested that this happens quite frequently. "The mere fact that the officers felt comfortable doing this speaks volumes," he said. "To make up a story in charging documents means you think you can get away with it, and that can only come from experience."</p>
<p>This is the type of scenario that leads black communities to feel unfairly targeted by police and creates deep distrust toward law enforcement. Gray was arrested unlawfully. But if it weren't for his death, he very likely would have had to pay — whether through jail time or more — without any media attention into the circumstances of his arrest. It's hard to imagine coming out of that situation without some resentment toward police and the criminal justice system as a whole.</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="vox-cardstack"><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-protests-freddie-gray">The Baltimore protests erupted after Freddie Gray's mysterious death</a></div>
<p> </p>
<p>
<script src="//embed.vox.com/cardstack.js"></script>
</p>
<h3>Watch: Why it's so important to film police</h3>
<p><iframe src="https://www.vox.com/videos/iframe?id=56758" frameborder="0" seamless="true" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" name="56758-chorus-video-iframe"></iframe></p>
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/4/8542855/freddie-gray-unlawful-arrestGerman Lopez2015-05-04T13:20:02-04:002015-05-04T13:20:02-04:00The criminal charges in Freddie Gray's case are a big deal
<figure>
<img alt="Baltimore residents celebrate the criminal charges against the six police officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Nbpvywj73UAohQdbmTlET4llSo8=/22x0:2969x2210/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46262714/GettyImages-471831472.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Baltimore residents celebrate the criminal charges against the six police officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest. | Win McNamee/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It's big news that the six Baltimore police officers involved in <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/">Freddie Gray</a>'s arrest and death will face criminal charges. And it follows a string of charges against police officers who were involved in the deaths of black men — in the past three months, officers were charged in the killing of <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/2/10/8015191/peter-liang-akai-gurley">Akai Gurley</a> in New York City, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/8/8368197/walter-scott-police-shooting">Walter Scott</a> in North Charleston, South Carolina, and <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/12/8395457/eric-harris-police-shooting">Eric Harris</a> in Tulsa, Oklahoma.</p>
<p>These prosecutions meet a major demand of the Black Lives Matter protest movement, which rose to prominence following the police shooting of <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/mike-brown-protests-ferguson-missouri/mike-brown-ferguson-MO-protests" target="_blank">Michael Brown</a>, an unarmed black 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Missouri, last August. One of the protesters' major goals has been to get justice for victims of police killings by putting the officers involved on trial.</p>
<p></p>
<div class="chorus-snippet s-related">
<span class="s-related__title">Related</span> <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8530705/freddie-gray-protesters-win">Freddie Gray shouldn't have been arrested, and he shouldn't have died</a>
</div>
<p>The latest prosecutions shouldn't be taken as a sign that Black Lives Matter has definitively won and that police will now be held accountable, or at least face trial, for all instances in which they kill someone under questionable circumstances. But they're a stark contrast from the police-involved deaths in 2014 that led to no charges — and lots of public outrage — including Michael Brown in Ferguson; <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/12/3/7327745/eric-garner-grand-jury-decision">Eric Garner</a> in New York City; <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/12/15/7393879/john-crawford-shooting-interrogation">John Crawford</a> in Beavercreek, Ohio; and <a href="http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/11/26/7295139/darrien-hunt-utah-shooting">Darrien Hunt</a> in Saratoga Springs, Utah.</p>
<p>In this context, the new prosecutions — and the public way they're being carried out — are a big deal. They could potentially reshape how officers think about using force, leading them to consider greater restraint in future cases.</p>
<h3>Police are given a lot of legal leniency to use force</h3>
<p>For decades, police officers have been given wide legal latitude to use force without much real threat of criminal charges. <span>In South Carolina, where a police officer shot and killed Walter Scott, </span><a href="http://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article15654974.html" style="font-size: 17.25px; line-height: 28.4624996185303px; background-color: #ffffff;">the State newspaper's Clif LeBlanc</a><span> found that police were charged in less than 2 percent of shootings. </span><span>In Maryland, where Freddie Gray was killed, the </span><a href="http://aclu-md.org/press_room/214" style="font-size: 1.15em; line-height: 1.65; background-color: #ffffff;">American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland</a><span> estimated that less than 2 percent of officers in police-involved killings were criminally charged between 2010 and 2014. </span></p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="MD police killings" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YGVmFnbpYkex0RJfO7kHuQuDxZU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3662718/MD_police_killings.0.png">
</figure>
<p>Supporters of the law that governs police use of force — which allows police officers to shoot if they have a "reasonable belief" that they are in danger, even if it turns out later that they were not — say it lets police avoid hesitating at a critical, dangerous moment and, as a result, getting killed. But critics say it's also fostered a police culture that resorts to deadly force too quickly without any legal repercussions.</p>
<p>Gray's case is unique in that police didn't directly use force against him; he instead died of a spinal cord injury after officers put him in the back of a moving police van without a seat belt and shackled by his hands and feet, rendering him unable to shield himself from the impact as he crashed into the interior of the vehicle. Still, his death, like others to police before him, became a focal point for the movement trying to push greater accountability for law enforcement.</p>
<p>Rage around such cases has bubbled up periodically for years. In 1999, for instance, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/amadou_diallo/index.html" target="_blank">Amadou Diallo</a>, an unarmed 22-year-old black man with no criminal record, was shot at 41 times by plainclothes New York City police officers after he held up his wallet, which they perceived as a gun. The officers were charged but acquitted.</p>
<p>But the conversation around these issues seems to have intensified, focusing on a broader, cultural law enforcement issue — not just problems within high-profile departments in New York or Los Angeles — and it may force a change around the country. Not only have several cases this year resulted in criminal charges, but racial disparities in police use of force are now a mainstream issue. President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/28/8508981/obama-baltimore-riots">talked about </a>Baltimore and Freddie Gray last week. Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic contender for the 2016 presidential race, dedicated a significant portion of her <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/29/8514831/hillary-clinton-criminal-justice-transcript">first major campaign speech</a> to this issue. And police killings of black men now get more mainstream media attention than ever before.</p>
<p>Ferguson, for example, was the biggest story on Twitter last year, according to research firm <a href="http://echeloninsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/theyearinnews20141.png">Echelon Insights</a>. This massive attention on social media pushed these issues to the forefront, pushing mainstream news outlets to take a serious look at the long history of racial disparities in police use of force.</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="2014 Twitter news" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3RRePGO3t2HcMv9JVvpLuyBOlkM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2886776/2014_Twitter_news.0.png">
<figcaption>
<p>(<a href="http://echeloninsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/theyearinnews20141.png">Echelon Insights</a>)</p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3>More prosecutions are a step forward, but not a total fix</h3>
<p>Of course, criminal charges and media attention by themselves don't solve all problems over police use of force and racial disparities in criminal justice. Drug laws are still enforced in disproportionate ways — black Americans use marijuana at about the same rate as their white counterparts, for example, but they're <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/2/4/7979595/drug-war-sentencing-project">nearly four times</a> as likely to be arrested. Too many police forces around the country still encourage <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/29/8513919/baltimore-riots-david-simon/in/8271602">petty arrests</a>, particularly in impoverished and black communities. Community-police relations in many cities are in disrepair — including Baltimore, where police have a documented recent <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-riots-history-police-violence">history of brutality</a>, especially against black residents.</p>
<p>It's also unclear whether any of these criminal charges will actually lead to convictions. The <a href="http://www.policemisconduct.net/2010-npmsrp-police-misconduct-statistical-report/#_Prosecuting_Police_Misconduct">National Police Misconduct Reporting Project</a> analyzed 3,238 criminal cases against police officers from April 2009 through December 2010. They found that only 33 percent were convicted, and only 36 percent of officers who were convicted ended up serving prison sentences. Both of those are about half the rate at which members of the public are convicted or incarcerated.</p>
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<p>But even without convictions, there are other signs of change. Use-of-force cases often capture the attention of the Justice Department, which has been investigating police departments around the country — like <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/mike-brown-protests-ferguson-missouri/justice-department-investigation-ferguson-police-racism">Ferguson's</a> — for years, leading to legal decrees that compel departments to enact sweeping reforms. More police departments, with the encouragement of the federal government, are adopting <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/9/17/6113045/police-worn-body-cameras-explained">body cameras</a>, which will help hold cops accountable. The feds <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/16/8431283/drug-war-poverty">no longer</a> encourage excessive arrests through a major funding program for police. And as research and awareness improve, more police departments are training their officers to resist <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/8/28/6051971/police-implicit-bias-michael-brown-ferguson-missouri">subconscious racial biases</a> that may make them more likely to use force against black suspects.</p>
<p>Still, the prosecutions and media attention alone show police accountability is being taken more seriously. If there are real consequences to a miscarriage of justice, both individual officers and entire police departments are going to be pushed to reconsider their culture and policies around use of force.</p>
<div class="vox-cardstack"><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/race-police-force-freddie-gray">At the center of the Baltimore protests: racial disparities in police use of force and the criminal justice system</a></div>
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<h3>Watch: Why it's so important to film police</h3>
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https://www.vox.com/2015/5/4/8539911/freddie-gray-chargesGerman Lopez2015-05-04T09:30:02-04:002015-05-04T09:30:02-04:00In 2 Baltimore neighborhoods, infant mortality is higher than in the West Bank
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<p>Little Italy and Canton are two nearby neighborhoods in Baltimore. It's about 1.5 miles from one to the other, either seven minutes by car or a half-hour walk.</p>
<p>But for a newborn baby, the neighborhoods couldn't be further apart. Kids born in Little Italy are more than 10 times as likely to die before their first birthday as those born in Canton.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/21/8461087/freddie-gray-baltimore-police">The death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray</a> has touched off a new conversation about urban inequality, the huge economic and <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/30/8517375/babies-born-3-miles-apart-in-new-york-have-a-9-year-life">health disparities that can exist within a few miles or subway stops</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/30/baltimores-poorest-residents-die-20-years-earlier-than-its-richest/">Chris Ingraham at the Washington Post</a> recently looked at life expectancy in Baltimore, showing that there are 15 neighborhoods in the city in which residents can expect to live shorter lives than people born in North Korea.</p>
<p>But another, and in some ways more disturbing, disparity emerges when you look at infant mortality, a measure of how likely infants are to die in their first year of life.</p>
<p>Nationally, the United States does quite poorly. For every 1,000 babies born, 6.1 babies will die before their first birthday — <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_05.pdf">the highest rate among wealthy countries</a>. <span>But that average hides shocking disparities between states, cities, and even towns. The infant mortality rate in richer Baltimore neighborhoods like Canton is barely distinguishable from, say, the infant mortality rate in Finland. But according to 2013 data collected by </span><a href="http://bniajfi.org/indicator/Children%20and%20Family%20Health">Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance</a><span>, in Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood, about two out of every 100 children die before their first birthday — which puts infant mortality in Little Italy roughly on par with Nicaragua and Uzbekistan.</span></p>
<h3>Some neighborhoods in Baltimore have higher infant mortality than the West Bank</h3>
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<p>Emily Oster, an economist at the University of Rhode Island, looked at infant mortality in the United States last year. Her research shows that high-income areas of the United States have infant mortality rates similar to European countries.</p>
<p>This shows up in Baltimore, too. If you look at the strip of lighter-colored neighborhoods in the northern part of the city — places like Roland Park and Mount Washington — they have an infant mortality rate just around 3.4 deaths per 1,000 births — <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/infant-mortality_20758480-table9">slightly lower than France, but higher than Germany</a>.</p>
<p>These are the wealthier neighborhoods in Baltimore; Roland Park, for example, has an average income of $106,770. Less than 2 percent of residents there live below the poverty line.</p>
<p>But there are two neighborhoods in Baltimore — Little Italy and Greenmount East — with infant mortality rates above 20. This means that for every 100 babies born there in 2013, two died before their first birthday. That's a higher rate than you <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2091.html" target="_blank">find</a> in the West Bank, Honduras, or Venezuela.</p>
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<p>Unsurprisingly, Little Italy and Greenmount are some of the poorest neighborhoods in Baltimore. Average income in Little Italy is $31,547, and 41 percent of families live below the poverty line.</p>
<p>Oster has studied what separates high- and low-income populations in the United States — what might cause the disparities that exist here, but not in Europe. <span>It's not, for example, worse vaccination rates; those tend to be similar among all kids in the United States, regardless of how much their family earns. Heath insurance status could matter, as low-income Americans are less likely to have coverage — and some data does show a correlation between no health plan and higher infant mortality rates.</span></p>
<h3>Infant mortality isn't just about health care</h3>
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<div class="vox-cardstack"><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence">The Baltimore protests over Freddie Gray’s death, explained</a></div>
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<p>One reason infants might face worse odds in low-income neighborhoods could be that they have worse access to health care at birth. But when Oster compared same-weight babies during the first month of life, she found little difference in outcomes. During those first four weeks, low- and high-income babies had equal odds of survival.</p>
<p>"You might think that lower-income babies have access to worse neonatal care, but we find that the place where there is higher mortality is actually the later part of infancy," Oster says. "When babies get home — when there are accidents and different sleep environments and those types of things — you see differences show up."</p>
<p>Oster's research shows that the most common causes of infant mortality tend to be accidents and sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. These are challenges that are difficult to target with specific policy responses — or least those that easily fit within a city budget.</p>
<p>"One thing that has gotten discussion is home visiting, and an effort to follow up with them when they're at home, to think about behaviors to create a safer environment," Oster says. "That's one kind of intervention where there's been some evidence that it works, but it also tends to be resource-intensive and expensive."</p>
<p>Discussions of poor neighborhoods often get caught in debates about responsibility. Some argue that disparities in longevity, for instance, are the result of young men making criminal choices, while others point toward failing urban policies, the destruction of manufacturing jobs, or the devastating effects of childhood lead poisoning. The culprit is contested because, depending on who is to blame, society may or may not morally be obligated to help.</p>
<p>Focusing on infant mortality clarifies the situation considerably: these children did nothing except be born on the wrong side of town, and many of them are losing their lives for it. The children born in Greenmount did not make bad choices, and they should not, in the richest country in the world, be abandoned to an infant mortality rate on par with a violent, developing nation.</p>
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/4/8541369/infant-mortality-baltimoreSarah Kliff2015-05-02T10:50:02-04:002015-05-02T10:50:02-04:00Man who smashed police car faces higher bail than cop who allegedly murdered Freddie Gray
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<p>Baltimore police officer Caesar Goodson Jr., 45, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8530201/freddie-gray-criminal-charges" target="_blank">allegedly murdered</a> <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-protests-freddie-gray">Freddie Gray</a>. Allen Bullock, 18, smashed a Baltimore police car with a traffic cone. Yet the police officer reportedly ended up with a much lower bail than Bullock — a difference that Baltimore protesters say is another sign of a criminal justice system that's skewed in favor of police officers.</p>
<p>Bullock turned himself in after the April 25 Baltimore riots, and, according to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/30/baltimore-rioters-parents-500000-bail-allen-bullock">Guardian</a>, his bail was set at $500,000 — a sum his family says they can't afford. His family now says they regret convincing him to turn himself in.</p>
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<span class="s-related__title">Related</span> <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8530705/freddie-gray-protesters-win">Freddie Gray shouldn't have been arrested, and he shouldn't have died</a>
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<p>Goodson was arrested on Friday after Baltimore's state attorney announced <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8530201/freddie-gray-criminal-charges">five criminal charges</a> against him: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8529761/freddie-gray-depraved-murder">second-degree depraved-heart murder</a>, involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, manslaughter by vehicle (gross negligence), manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence), and misconduct in office. His bail was set at $350,000, according to the <a href="https://twitter.com/justin_fenton/status/594249925535338497">Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton</a>.</p>
<p>The difference in bails — which are set based on the seriousness of the crime, past criminal record, ties to the community, and risk of flight — has triggered backlash from protesters and their supporters.</p>
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<blockquote lang="en" data-cards="hidden" class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Correction: EVERY SINGLE officer arrested for killing <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreddieGray?src=hash">#FreddieGray</a> was given bail less than teenager Allen Bullock. <a href="http://t.co/d3I8Yc42II">pic.twitter.com/d3I8Yc42II</a></p>
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/594260031576481792">May 1, 2015</a>
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<p>One public defender told <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/baltimores-big-bad-bail-problem-327727">Newsweek's Polly Mosendz</a> that high bails are common in Baltimore. "This is a jurisdiction that struggles with setting bails for people. Our office has been working on high bail for quite some time," Marci Tarrant Johnson, a public defender in Baltimore, told Newsweek. "People in Baltimore often refer to bails as ransoms because they're impossible to meet."</p>
<p>But Johnson acknowledged the rioters' bails are being set "prohibitively." "Even though the bails are usually very high," she said, "commonly people who are charged with disorderly conduct are released" on certain conditions.</p>
<p>Others suggested courts are trying to make an example out of Bullock. "By turning himself in, he also let me know he was growing as a man and he recognized what he did was wrong," Maurice Hawkins, Bullock's stepfather, told the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/30/baltimore-rioters-parents-500000-bail-allen-bullock">Guardian</a>. "But they are making an example of him, and it is not right."</p>
<p>Whatever the reason, protesters aren't happy about it — and it's not helping calm the situation in Baltimore, which has been mired by tense protests and some riots over the past week.</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="vox-cardstack"><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence/baltimore-protests-freddie-gray">The Baltimore protests erupted after Freddie Gray's mysterious death</a></div>
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<h3>Watch: Why police officers are rarely prosecuted for killing civilians</h3>
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https://www.vox.com/2015/5/2/8534943/baltimore-bail-freddie-grayGerman Lopez