Jury Rejects the Lies of Baltimore Police—Acquits Keith Davis Jr. of All 15 Original Charges
February 29, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
Keith Davis Jr.
Keith Davis Jr. was fired at 44 times by Baltimore police on June 7 last year, including three shots to his face. (See “Keith Davis Jr.—Shot at 44 Times by Baltimore Police. His Crime? That He Survived.”) He survived that shooting. And rather than investigate and charge the cops in this outrage, the prosecutors went after Keith—the victim—and he was the one in jail facing multiple felony charges. On February 25, a Baltimore jury acquitted Keith Davis Jr. on all 15 of the original charges. The jury convicted him of the additional charge, added by the state’s attorney in December, of possessing a firearm as a prohibited person, so he still faces over five years in jail.
In the trial, the cab driver who was asked to identify Keith as the man who had attempted to rob him on June 7 replied, “That don’t look like him to me.” Further, the gun that the police claimed they “found” on the scene had never been fired. Keith’s attorney, Latoya Francis-Williams, summed up in court: “They’re in damage control. Why? Because they shot the wrong person... They double down hoping that no one will notice, that an innocent man will be convicted and we’ll close the books on this.”
The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and the order that enforces all this oppression and madness.
Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:24
Indeed, the trial included a parade of government witnesses, including the cops who had fired at Keith Davis. Despite the fact that the cops claimed that they had not been asked to file reports on the shooting until January—over six months after the shooting, despite Maryland law giving cops 10 days to get their story together—the cops’ testimony was not only filled with lies but numerous inconsistencies between their accounts.
Further, a witness to the event, Martina Washington, testified that the police “...keep saying all the stuff to you and telling you what they want you to say...” And minutes before a key defense witness, Kelly Holsey (who was on the phone with Keith as he was being shot at by police) was supposed to testify, officers outside the courtroom served her with a grand jury subpoena on state’s attorney letterhead. Kelly said at a press conference later that she has no idea what case she is being called to testify in and denounced the grand jury subpoena as a blatant attempt at witness intimidation.
The battle for justice for Keith Davis Jr. is by no means over. His conviction on the weapons possession charge is being appealed while he remains in jail with a bullet fragment lodged in his neck, still awaiting needed medical attention.
Free Keith Davis Jr.!
Indict the cops who fired at him 44 times!
Police terror must stop!
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.
