this is a very complicated case, a very involved case. there has to be a jury selected for each of the cases and against each of the officers. and there are many other cases in baltimore city to be tried during that period as well. so, no, this doesn t seem unusual to me that june would be the date that would be selected. because of the complicated nature of all of this and the multiple trials and the fact that some kind of result is delayed no matter what in the case of officer porter, i guess i wonder for the people of baltimore who are eager to see a conclusion to this, i mean, do you feel like that the state still has the confidence of the city in the way it did at the outset of this? i think people in baltimore are much more sophisticated than they re giving credit for. you know, today we filed the suit challenging the decision by the governor of maryland just a few weeks after the unrest in the freddie gray case to cancel the subway that had been planned for baltimore, the ea
tonight, baltimore police officer william porter, the first of six officers to go to trial in connection with the death of freddie gray, he has a new trial date. after the first jury deadlocked and a judge declared a mistrial last week. porter still faces four charges, including manslaughter, but he will not be retried until june of next year, long after the other five police officers have gone to trial. and the decision throws a major wrench in the rest of the state s prosecution plan. one of the reasons officer porter was the first case to go to trial was because prosecutors considered him a material witness in the cases against two other police officers. officer caesar goodson, who faces the most serious charges, and sergeant alicia white. both of their trials begin next month. but now it will be very difficult for prosecutors to get officer porter on the stand during those trials or to even get his prior testimony or statements entered into the record.
just had the mistrial last week. there s a lot to consider. and i think that the state s attorney s office is doing probably a very good job of thinking about all the considerations and playing out this chess game and trying to reverse engineer the result that they want and trying to see if they can get the result with the actions that they take with or without officer porter. and i think we ll have to see. we have other police officers to be tried before him including officer goodson and others beginning in january. there s a lot to happen before we return to the issue of porter and i m sure right now there are very serious conversations happening with porter s counsel and in the state s attorney s office about how they manage him. it s of course worth noting that officer porter has pleaded not guilty to the charges. i wonder, from a legal perspective, were you surprised that the judge has kept his the retrial in june and not expedited that at all? no. i m really i m not surpr
as i said, there are a number of other officers still to be tried. this is a very complicated case, a very involved case. there has to be a jury selected for each of the cases and against each of the officers. and there are many other cases in baltimore city to be tried during that period as well. so no, this doesn t seem unusual to me that june would be the date that would be selected. because of the complicated nature of all of this and the multiple trials and the fact that some kind of result is delayed no matter what in the case of officer porter, i guess i wonder for the people of baltimore who are eager to see a conclusion to this, i mean, do you feel like that the state still has the confidence of the city in the way it did at the outset of this? i think people in baltimore are much more sophisticated than they re giving credit for. you know, today we filed the suit challenging the decision by the governor of maryland just a few weeks after the unrest in the freddie gray cas
difficult for prosecutors to get officer porter on the stand during those trials or to even get his prior testimony or statements entered into the record. because if he still has charges pending against him, which he will, if his trial doesn t begin until june, officer porter will be able to assert his fifth amendment rights against self-incriminal-nation. as legal experts told the baltimore sun, if prosecutors want porter to testify or want even to introduce his statements to police investigators, they likely will have to grant him immunity. joining me now is cherilyn ifill, long-time baltimore resident and present of the naacp legal and educational fund. i guess in terms of moving this forward do you think the state has any option but to give officer porter immunity? i really don t want to speculate on that, alex. there are a number of other cases against other police officers in the works. i think the state s attorney s office has a lot of considerations that they are engaging in.