Goodson had been charged with second-degree depraved heart murder, manslaughter, two counts of vehicular manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office. He faced up to 30 years in prison.
This leaves State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby with a record of 0 and 3 in the "Freddie Gray" prosecutions, following the hung jury of Officer William Porter and the acquittal Officer Edward Nero in a bench trial.
The state has argued a revolving array of three different theories of the case for criminal liability of the officers: (1) "Murder by failure to seatbelt"; (2) "Murder by failure to provide timely medical care"; and (3) "Murder by rough ride."
In order to obtain a conviction on any of the criminal charges the prosecution must, of course, prove each and every element of that charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Over the course of the last three "Freddie Gray" trials, however, it has become increasingly apparent that the prosecution not only lacks sufficient evidence to meet that high burden, it may lack any direct evidence for any of its theories of the case.
In addition, prosecutors have been repeatedly found to have concealed exculpatory evidence from the defense, that the state's medical examiner originally believed Gray's death to have been an accident after testifying that she had always believed the death to be a homicide, and just yesterday it was revealed by the Baltimore Sheriffs Office that the "parallel" investigation purported conducted by that office on behalf of prosecutors never actually took place. |