A Baltimore embarrassment

After a criminally inept attempt to prosecute six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby on Wednesday brought the highprofile case involving the death of a black man in police custody to its destructive close. Gray, 25, inexplicably died from a spinal injury one week after being handcuffed and driven unsecured in the back of a police van last year. His death led to protests and rioting.

Less than two weeks after Gray’s death, Mosby — on the job just four months — filed charges ranging from second-degree murder to assault.

She announced them with wildly inappropriate rhetoric: “To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America: I heard your call for ‘No justice, no peace.’ Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.”

But after failing to convict in the first three trials, Mosby threw in the towel. The proceedings that did take place revealed she had moved far too precipitously, with cases built far too heavily on the idea that, because Gray died of injuries suffered in the police van, every cop shared criminal culpability.

When it came to proving beyond a reasonable doubt how each officer had broken the law, she failed miserably. The one case tried by jury ended in a hung jury. Judge Barry Williams — an African American not previously known for being pro-police — acquitted the next two cops in bench trials.

Thanks to Mosby’s incompetence, no one will ever know whether any of the officers was truly guilty, and the officers have every right to believe they were targeted to satisfy public outrage. There’s no peace in that.