Marilyn Mosby will be giving a speech at the NAACP convention in Philadelphia this weekend.  Her indulgent publicity tour continues – President Obama and Attorney General Lynch will also be in attendance.  Meanwhile….

BALTIMORE – Public interest in the prosecution of six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray will not diminish enough to seat an impartial jury in the city in time for the officers’ October trials, their attorneys argued in a new court filing Monday.

Because of that, the attorneys wrote, the case should be removed from the city now — without waiting, as prosecutors have suggested, to see how the intense scrutiny of the case plays out.

“The feeling of unrest among city residents is still chillingly evident as violent crime continues to climb to the highest level in decades, police and community relations remain embattled, and Freddie Gray remains fresh in the minds of Baltimore City citizens,” the officers’ attorneys wrote.

Mugshots for the six officers “continue to frequent the local newspapers and TV news broadcasts,” they wrote, and publicity surrounding the case and the associated unrest “has not subsided and shows no signs of stopping.”

[…]  Rochelle Ritchie, a spokeswoman for Mosby, said the state’ attorney’s office had not received the filing as of Monday evening, but will “litigate this matter in the courtroom and not in the media.”

[…] The defense attorneys said that prejudices in the community about the unrest that came following Gray’s death can’t be separated from the case against the officers, even if prosecutors are right about the fact that multiple factors contributed to the unrest.

“Although there is no question that the general unrest and disenfranchisement of Baltimore City residents stems from a number of social and economic issues, there is no doubt that but for the arrest and subsequent death of Freddie Gray the protests and riots would not have taken place in Baltimore City,” the officers’ attorneys wrote. (continue reading)

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