Judge acquits officer of murder in Freddie Gray case

A judge in Baltimore on Thursday acquitted the only police officer charged with murder in the death of Freddie Gray, the African-American man who suffered a fatal injury in police custody last year. Caesar Goodson Jr. is the third officer to avoid conviction in the incident. Judge Barry G. Williams acquitted another officer last month, and the first officer’s trial ended in a hung jury. Prosecutors argued the six officers involved in Gray’s arrest and transportation failed to protect him from injury in the back of a police van, where he was handcuffed and shackled but not buckled in his seat. They also faulted the officers for not seeking medical help for Gray, who suffered a broken neck and died a week after his arrest on April 12, 2015.