Famed defense attorney - and Harvard law professor - Alan Dershowitz
agrees with the Baltimore FOP . I actually think he's right. You have "probable cause" to bring a person to trial when you think it is more probable than not the defendant is guilty. In other words, if you think there is a 51% probability the man is guilt, you can arrest him and try him.
But convicting him? That's another matter. There, the standard is "beyond a reasonable doubt." I don't see how Marilyn Mosby can get a second degree murder convictionout of this.
Alan Dershowitz really went after Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby today for charging the six cops involved in the death of Freddie Gray, saying it was entirely based on politics and “crowd control.”
Dershowitz lamented that “this is a very sad day for justice” and told Steve Malzberg that Mosby acted out of a “desire to prevent riots.” It will be “virtually impossible,” he predicted, for the six officers involved to get a fair trial.
And as for murder charges, Dershowitz said there’s “no plausible, hypothetical, conceivable case for murder” and “this is a show trial.” He predicted that Mosby might get removed as prosecutor and Baltimore citizens may get upset if and/or when they “move to a place with a different demographic.”
He concluded that it’s “unlikely they’ll get any convictions in this case” and if they do they’ll likely “be reversed on appeal.”
Onward and upward,
airforce