by
By: E. Faye Williams
For more than a year, I’ve been involved in working with Baltimore’s former state’s attorney, Marilyn Mosby, who has spent the past five years of her life defending herself and was ultimately forced to wear an ankle bracelet for a year when she should have been praised for the great work she was doing. Her case was misunderstood by too many, including Black people who didn’t take the time to get the facts about what happened in the case against her.
Mosby is not a crook and did not deserve what the government did to her. It was Donald Trump’s wish that she be prosecuted for prosecuting others who should have been upholding the law. He wanted to interfere in her city by taking over and perhaps killing a few Black people to “teach them a lesson” about showing their anger for the killing of Freddie Gray — a Black man who died in police custody. Many in Baltimore were angry, being given no rational reason for Gray’s death while he was being taken to a police station.
She is a brilliant attorney who served as an example for other prosecutors throughout the nation. While I was not her counsel, I was on her team. Many helped us get nearly 100,000 petitions for a pardon. We shared those petitions with President Joe Biden, who had pardoned his own son. Even though he was leaving office, we believed he understood the case against Marilyn, so we set out to work on Mosby’s team.
Johnny Ford, leader of the World Conference of Mayors, supported the pardon. The Congressional Black Caucus and nearly 100,000 people learned the facts and readily signed the pardon petition. Knowing of the support of nearly every civil rights organization leader who’d supported Biden, we thought the pardon was a no-brainer. Yet, he left office without a word. People who knew the facts supported the pardon. We heard nothing in response to our request.
The government sought to send Marilyn to prison for as much as 40 years for spending her own money to buy property during COVID-19. Over 700 people in Baltimore did the same thing she did — used money from their similar accounts, which nobody questioned.
I listened to a recording where Trump (with all his criminal convictions) was urging that Mosby be prosecuted.
She was one of our youngest state prosecutors in the nation with a brilliant record. She:
– Fought for justice, to free innocent Black men wrongly serving life sentences.
– Held power accountable, prosecuting 33 corrupt police officers.
– Took bold action after Gray’s death while in police custody, halting a 17-day city uprising.
– Refused to prosecute low-level possession charges that disproportionately targeted Black communities.
– Protected youth, launching programs that positively affected over 20,000.
– Targeted threats, focusing on violent offenders and major drug dealers.
– Resisted political pressure and faced a smear campaign funded by right-wing interests while showing a declining murder rate in the area.
– A Johns Hopkins study confirmed her policy of not prosecuting low-level offenses did not lead to a rise in crime — only six of the 741 released were arrested for serious offenses.
She was sentenced to home arrest for a year, lost her job, her marriage, and her property and paid an extremely heavy price for things she did to help her community. A few days ago, she was relieved of the leg irons while awaiting a positive appeal.
Many who’ve been there for her held a special event in her honor, without many Black leaders being present, to thank her for her courage for doing the right thing.
The committee, led by Lt. Col. Tyrone Bost, Josephine Mourning, leader of the Metro DC Area SCLC, Sister Nia 2X, head of the Metro DC Area NAN, and a jubilant crowd, held an event in her honor. Representing the Dick Gregory Society, I, too, was present.
E. Faye Williams is president of The Dick Gregory Society (www.thedickgregorysociety.org).
