We lead our first show of 2016 with a look at some important legal cases in the news. Caesar Goodson will stand trial beginning next Monday on charges that he was one of six police officers who killed Freddie Gray while in police custody last April. Pre-trial motions will be heard on Wednesday. Last month, Officer William Porter’s trial ended with a hung jury. He will be re-tried on four counts, including involuntary manslaughter, next June. We’ll start this morning by assessing the pulse of the city as this 2nd trial gets underway. While the lack of a verdict in the Porter trial may have been disappointing to many, Cleveland has become the latest place where no indictment against police officers involved in the death of black men and boys will be forthcoming. An indictment has been handed down against one of America’s most famous black celebrities. Last Wednesday, Bill Cosby was charged with aggravated indecent assault in an incident that occurred in 2004.
To discuss these important and controversial cases, we're pleased to welcome back to the show Dr. Sheri Parks. She is an Associate Dean for Research, Interdisciplinary Scholarship and Programming at the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of MD College Park, where she also teaches in the Department of American Studies. Sheri wrote a terrific book called Fierce Angels: The Strong Black Woman in American Life and Culture….
