To win convictions, prosecutors must get inside heads of Baltimore officers

The L.A. Times reports:

Prosecutors seeking to convict six Baltimore officers in the death of a young black man severely injured while in police custody will focus not on what the officers did but on what they allegedly failed to do: provide medical attention to 25-year-old Freddie Gray inside a police van on April 12.

That will require prosecutors and jurors to get inside the heads of the officers to determine whether they willfully ignored what a prosecutor said was Gray’s increasingly frantic pleas for medical help during a 44-minute ride in the van.

Unlike police abuse cases in which officers are charged with a physical act, such as beating or shooting a suspect, the Gray case involves evaluating the subjective performance of police duties. Prosecutors will have to convince jurors that the officers showed a conscious disregard for human life, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor.

The struggles of Blue America.