*The NAACP, in conjunction with the National Urban League, Black Voters Matter, and a couple of other notable civil rights groups, jointly urged President Biden to immediately grant a presidential pardon to Attorney Marilyn Mosby – the former Baltimore State’s Attorney facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for her conviction.
The NAACP and over 13 civil rights organizations penned a lengthy letter on May 7 to Biden, as part of their spirited fight for the acquittal of Mosby’s mortgage fraud and perjury charges. In the letter, they argued the disgraced former Baltimore official was “unfairly targeted and unjustly convicted” by the federal government due to her determination to prosecute the six officers involved in the ill-fated 2015 arrest of Freddie Gray.
“We’ve watched, decade after decade, as Black Americans have faced wrongful prosecution at the hands of those who seek to promote injustice. The only thing Marilyn Mosby is guilty of is the desire to provide her family with a better life,” wrote NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson in the pardon request letter. “The sad reality is, as Black women take their rightful places in positions of power, dark forces seek to tear down both their progress and that of our community. The NAACP refuses to stand idly by as injustice takes the wheel, driving us down a path of further disparity.”
Mosby, 44, was convicted in February by a federal jury with a federal charge of mortgage fraud concerning the 2021 purchase of a condominium in Long Boat Key, Florida. According to the United States Attorney’s office, the FBI report indicated that the accused filed a false mortgage application for a $428,400 mortgage while serving as the Baltimore State’s Attorney, in her attempt to secure a lower interest rate, reports MadameNoire.
The prosecutors argued that she falsely claimed she had received a $5,000 gift from her husband for the property purchase, allegedly to obtain a reduced interest rate. According to the prosecutors, Mosby never received the gift she claimed she received but simply transferred $5,000 to her husband, who in turn transferred the same amount back to her.
The former Baltimore State’s Attorney was previously convicted on two counts of perjury in 2023 for withdrawing funds from the City of Baltimore’s Deferred Compensation Plan, her retirement account, claiming she suffered adverse financial consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. The crime attracts five years in federal prison for both counts, on top of her mortgage fraud conviction.
Mosby is to be sentenced on May 23. In an interview with “The Breakfast Club” on May 8, where she was joined by social justice advocate and reporter Angela Rye, she insisted she was innocent.
“I’ve been accused of doing something that I have not done. I’m innocent. I’m facing 40 years for withdrawing funds from my retirement savings. The United States government, a global superpower, is actually coming for me,” Mosby stated. On her part, Rye asked President Biden to pardon Mosby.
In 2015, Mosby as Baltimore State’s Attorney pursued charges against six officers in connection with Gray’s death. She accused them of several offenses from misconduct in office to manslaughter and second-degree depraved-heart murder.
However, her legal efforts didn’t bear fruit. After a mistrial and three acquittals on all charges, she decided to drop the charges against the remaining three officers in 2016. Baltimore agreed to a $6.4 million settlement with Gray’s family. But she thinks she is now a marked person.
“…at that time, I was one of the first prosecutors in the county to attempt to hold police officers accountable for the death of a Black man,” Mosby said while highlighting her role in the case. “That wasn’t happening in this country. And so, it immediately came with a great deal of backlash. I got hate mail and death threats.”
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