With the jury set to deliver a verdict any day now in Baltimore police officer William Porter’s trial, city and other local officials have started readying themselves for the worst.
We asked BuzzFeed News’ Joel Anderson, who is reporting from Baltimore, a few questions about the trial.
What’s happening right now?
Today marks the third day of deliberations and the 11th day in Porter’s trial. The 26-year-old Baltimore native faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment associated with Gray’s death.
Prosecutors say that Porter’s failure to place Gray in a seatbelt or seek medical attention means that he bears significant responsibility for Gray’s death. Porter’s attorneys maintainthat the officer acted to help Gray, implicitly shifting the responsibility for his death to the other officers charged in the case.
What are some noteworthy moments?
A number of questions about the training of Baltimore’s police officers were raised over the last two weeks. For example, Porter told jurors how his training at the academy was interrupted for several months after one of his instructors accidentally shot one of the officers.
Testifying in his own defense, Porter told jurors that he’d come to know Gray pretty well in his two and a half years patrolling the neighborhood on foot. “If he wasn’t dirty,” Porter said (a reference to the possession of drugs), “he’d come over and talk to me.”
When can we expect a decision?
The best guess is today or tomorrow, but even that might be optimistic. Tuesday afternoon, jurors said they were deadlocked. The judge initially set Thursday Dec. 17 for the end of the trial, but it’s unknown whether he’ll stick to that timeline.