Discussion for article #236659
I watched a defender of these officers on Chris Hayes argue that the driver should not have been charged with an intentional crime, even if he was “rough riding” Freddie Gray.
Really? “Rough riding” describes intentionally driving the police vehicle in such a way as to cause the arrestee, who has not been restrained with seat belts and, in Gray’s case, was lying hand and foot cuffed on the floor of the van, to be thrown about, likely being slammed with force into the front wall of the van and/or into the sides. The driver was not charged with intentional homicide; he was charged with second-degree “depraved heart” murder. Wiki defines the charge this way:
In a depraved-heart murder, defendants commit an act even though they know their act runs an unusually high risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to someone else. If the risk of death or bodily harm is great enough, ignoring it demonstrates a “depraved indifference” to human life and the resulting death is considered to have been committed with malice aforethought. In most states, depraved-heart killings constitute second-degree murder.
This seems to me to be a perfectly appropriate charge under the circumstances. Maybe it will stick and maybe it won’t, but not to charge would be indefensible.
3 Likes