Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby Comes to Howard

In the previous week, I went to a discussion with Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby, Esq. As many who are familiar with the Freddie Gray case may know, Mosby was the prosecutor who charged the six police officers with manslaughter and assault.

Although I wasn’t able to take many notes because I was so intrigued by the conversation, there were a few things that stood out for me while Mosby was talking to the audience. One of the points Mosby made I remember her speaking about was about our success being based off of another person’s labor – which I strongly agree with. She also pointed out that about 36% of children in Baltimore are living below the poverty line, while approximately 2.3 million (or more) men are currently in prison. Additionally, she noted that 95% of all prosecutors in the United States are white – with 83% of all prosecutors being men and only 1% being women of color. In addition to the majority of all prosecutors being white, most of them treat Black defendants unfairly, which is a contributor to the higher percentage of Blacks that are in prison in comparison to other racial groups.

During the discussion, Mosby also asked for a call to action for our generation as we are the ones that need to be leaders in our communities as educated Black people.

Out of everything Mosby said during this discussion, I could not help but agree with everything she was saying. With black men and women going to prison at a significantly faster and higher rate than any other race in the country, we as Howard students and learned Black people should be the ones fighting for those who cannot fight for themselves. Especially in situations the jury does not properly reflect the diversity in the are or if there is racial tension between the Black community and another group, we need to be able to unify as one body in order to prevent members of our community from being targets of racial bias at the hands of judges, other prosecutors, and unfair juries.

-----------------------------

WORKS CITED

Kelly, Amita. "Does It Matter That 95 Percent Of Elected Prosecutors Are White?" NPR. NPR, 8 July 2015. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.