The Freddie Gray autopsy report has been completed, and the Sun reports on the findings.
Freddie Gray suffered a single “high-energy injury” — like those seen in shallow-water diving incidents — most likely caused when the police van in which he was riding suddenly decelerated, according to a copy of the autopsy report obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
The state medical examiner’s office concluded that Gray’s death fit the medical and legal definition of an accident, but ruled it to be a homicide because officers failed to follow safety procedures “through acts of omission.”
Though Gray was loaded into the van on his belly, the medical examiner surmised that he may have gotten to his feet and was thrown into the wall during an abrupt change in direction. He was not belted in, but his wrists and ankles were shackled, making him “at risk for an unsupported fall during acceleration or deceleration of the van.”
If this is an accurate summary of the report - I have no reason to think it’s not - it presents a puzzlingly complex set of conclusions. Putting on my lawyer hat for a moment, a competent defense attorney can easily befuddle a jury with these findings. The fact that the medical examiner’s office did not, for example, find any serious injury before Gray was put in the police van, appears to contradict the video evidence that he was unable to use his legs and was in great pain.
I think the State’s case against the six Baltimore police officers just got a lot harder.