Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby aims to serve a third term: ‘We cannot go back’
“Gearing up towards this election they have thrown more than the kitchen sink. They have thrown the kitchen at me,” Mosby told theGrio.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby told theGrio in a recent interview that she is “hopeful” she will win the Democratic primary election on Tuesday.
Despite facing a number of legal battles since taking office in 2015, Mosby believes she will receive enough votes to win re-election.
“I’m hopeful that the people understand and recognize that these are merely just distant distractions from the status quo that want this power. They want this position,” Mosby told theGrio.
Last week, Mosby’s defense team filed a motion to dismiss four federal charges, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements. In January, a grand jury indicted her for allegedly using funds from her retirement account to buy two homes in Florida, as theGrio previously reported.
During her interview with theGrio, the 42-year-old incumbent proclaimed, “I know at the end of the day, I did absolutely nothing wrong in accessing my retirement savings that I put away every two weeks and so I will be victorious the same way I always [have].”
Mosby believes the federal indictment she faces is an act of retaliation for filing charges against six Baltimore police officers on May 1, 2015, for their involvement in the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.
“Four months into my first term, I’m following the law and with the facts. Maybe it was my naivete to believe that we could actually implement one standard of justice in the city of Baltimore … regardless of race, sex, religion, occupation, and in this country, without there being some sense of backlash,” she said. “But that didn’t happen … I’ve been vilified since the day that I walked down those steps on May 1, 2015.”
Mosby continued, “Gearing up toward this election they have thrown more than the kitchen sink. They have thrown the kitchen at me. So, I think Fox 45 runs five stories on me a day. It’s rather ridiculous, but I hope that the folks and the voters of Baltimore City can see through it.”
Last month, Baltimore’s AFRO News endorsed Mosby and revealed that she has been a great leader and has tackled some important issues plaguing the Black community.
Dr. Frances Toni Draper, chief executive officer and publisher of the AFRO-American Newspapers, told theGrio that the Baltimore State’s attorney has “done some great work” and she believes she is being targeted “because she took a stand on the Freddie Gray case.”
“When we look at the candidates for state’s attorney, we still feel that she’s the best candidate at this time,” she revealed. “She, yes, has been charged with some very serious things. It’s very interesting that we built the country on the premise that you are innocent until proven guilty. We’ve now flipped the script and said you’re guilty until you’re proven innocent.
She added, “when we look at her record compared to her challengers … they have baggage too.”
Mosby is looking to defeat her opponents Ivan Bates, who is a defense attorney in Baltimore, and Thiru Vignarajah, the CEO of Capital Plus Financial. If Mosby is re-elected she has promised to focus on police reform and ending mass incarceration and racial disparities.
Since taking office, Mosby says progress has been made despite opposition from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and a scathing 2016 Department of Justice report that revealed the Baltimore City Police Department participates in patterns and practices that discriminate against people of color.
“We have gone through as a city something that none of my predecessors have ever gone through. And despite all of those unprecedented challenges, the way that you hold me to account is by what my prosecutors do in that courtroom. We have been the only stability in the city of Baltimore for the past seven years,” she said.
During the pandemic, Mosby implemented a controversial policy where her office would no longer prosecute cases involving marijuana possession.
“Minor offenses have nothing to do with public safety [and] can lead to a death sentence for Black people in this country,” she explained. “Understanding and recognizing that there’s no disparate use among white and Black people. There’s a billion-dollar industry, where individuals that don’t look like the individuals we want to criminalize are profiting.”
Both Vignarajah and Bates announced that if they became Baltimore’s next state’s attorney they would put an end to the policy.
However, Mosby argues, “We cannot go back after all that we’ve been through as a city to the era of mass incarceration, police abuse and police corruption.”
As the only Black woman running for Baltimore state’s attorney, Mosby told theGrio that it is important that Black women fill these positions to prevent discriminatory practices from disproportionately impacting the Black community.
“As a woman of color, all seven years that I’ve been in office, I’ve represented less than 1% of all elected prosecutors in the country,” she said. “I don’t need implicit bias training or cultural sensitivity training to know how young boys like Freddie Gray were being treated by the police department.
Mosby added, “I’m a Black woman living in the heart of West Baltimore with brothers and a husband and Black nephews. So at the end of the day, we need more of us at the table and one of the reasons why I wanted to become a prosecutor is because I understood that this system has disproportionately impacted us and the best way to be able to reform it is from within.”
Mosby said in spite of the pending federal charges she’s going to “continue to fight no matter what, unapologetically, despite what they do, what they say about me.”
“Everybody should know at this point that I’m not going to cede to anything that I believe is unethical. I’m not going to cede to anything that I believe is going to take us in the reverse direction and we’re making progress,” said Mosby. “I just hope that those scare tactics that are being intentionally perpetuated and employed do not resonate with the voters of Baltimore City.”
If Mosby wins the primary election she will face off against Independent candidate and defense attorney Roya Hanna in the November general election.
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