Marilyn Mosby turned around after being convicted at her first trial and didn’t recall seeing any supporters in the courtroom.

On the nationally syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club,” Mosby recounted what she described as the most sobering moment of her prosecution related to her purchase of two luxury vacation homes in Florida. She said she prayed on it — and realized that God was with her the entire time.

For her second trial, Mosby said she decided to take her daughters, Nylyn, 15, and Aniyah, 13, to show them strength in the face of adversity. When she later appeared for a motions hearing, a bus brought supporters bearing signs with messages such as, “DO YOU WANT THE FBI FINANCIAL EXPERTS SPENDING MILLIONS TO LOOK INTO YOUR PERSONAL MORTGAGE AND FINANCIAL RECORDS” and chanting, “Hands off Marilyn Mosby!”

On Thursday, Mosby is scheduled to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on two counts of perjury and one count of making a false statement on a loan application.

The moment caps what her attorneys describe in court documents as “dramatic and public fall from grace” for Mosby, who was once one of the youngest elected prosecutors for a major city in the United States. She was profiled in Vogue, photographed by Annie Leibovitz and appeared onstage with Prince.

During the past several weeks, Mosby has rallied support from high-profile media personalities, attorneys and civil rights organizations. She has also embarked on a national press tour, pushing for a pardon from President Joe Biden, which experts say seems unlikely to happen.

“I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong, nothing illegal, nothing criminal,” Mosby, 44, a Democrat who served as Baltimore state’s attorney from 2015-2023, declared on “The ReidOut” with Joy Reid on MSNBC.

Steve Silverman, managing partner of Silverman Thompson who represented former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in the “Healthy Holly” scandal, could not recall any case in which a person accused the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland of targeting and bias; stood trial twice and was convicted; and then sought a pardon ahead of sentencing.

Silverman does not see how Mosby can avoid prison time.

“I think what it shows is a lack of acceptance of responsibility,” Silverman said, “and I think that pattern before, during and after her trial is going to backfire upon her.”

But some of her supporters — and even detractors — speculated that whatever sentence is handed down, it won’t be the last of Mosby.

‘Ms. Mosby has every right to maintain her innocence’

Mosby was born to a teen mother and grew up in a mostly working class, Black community in Boston. She said her maternal grandparents “pretty much” raised her. Starting in the second grade, she was bused to school almost one hour away in the wealthier, whiter community of Dover, Massachusetts.

Her cousin and best friend, Diron Spence, was shot and killed in 1994 after family members believe he had been mistaken for a neighborhood drug dealer. He was 17.

If a neighbor had not come forward and testified, Mosby has said, she would not have received justice. She has described that experience as her first introduction to the criminal justice system.

Mosby became a first-generation college graduate in 2002 when she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from Tuskegee University, a historically Black institution in Alabama where she met her future husband, Nick, now the outgoing president of Baltimore City Council. She received her law degree from Boston College Law School in 2005.

In 2014, Mosby defeated incumbent Baltimore State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein, becoming one of the youngest elected prosecutors in any major American city.

Warren Brown, a defense attorney in Baltimore, recalled bumping into Mosby on the corner of East Fayette Street and St. Paul Street near the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse after she won the election.

Mosby was a young Black woman who some felt had not earned the position, Brown said. People, he said, were trying to make it a point that she and her husband, who at the time was a city councilman, were a power couple.

“Listen, Marilyn. You won. Congratulations. But you better watch yourself,” Brown said he told Mosby. “You have to carry yourself with a watchful eye.”

Not long after she took office, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, died from injuries sustained in custody. Mosby charged six Baltimore Police officers in his death, a controversial decision that thrust her into the national spotlight.

None of the cases resulted in convictions.

Mosby has said the position took a toll on her marriage.

Despite being the city’s top prosecutor, her name was not on the deed of their home in Reservoir Hill. She said she was not planning on running for a third term and wanted to establish financial independence.

“I’m hoping to capitalize on the uncertainty of the market right now,” Mosby texted a real estate agent on April 23, 2020, while initially looking at homes in Baltimore.

Jurors in two separate trials that were moved from Baltimore to Greenbelt concluded that Mosby lied during that pursuit.

The first verdict concerned how she twice made sworn statements about experiencing a qualifying “adverse financial consequence” to withdraw a total of $90,000 from a retirement account using the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act.

Mosby used that money to buy a home in Kissimmee, Florida, near Walt Disney World, and a condominium in Longboat Key, Florida, on the state’s southwest Gulf Coast.

The second verdict related to a letter she submitted to the mortgage company when she bought the condo.

While Mosby was awaiting trial, Ivan Bates defeated her in the Democratic primary in 2022 and ran unopposed on Election Day.

When she was no longer state’s attorney, Mosby moved out of the house and now lives in Fells Point. She filed for divorce.

“There was a great deal of contention in our relationship. It had become extremely toxic,” Mosby testified at her mortgage fraud trial. “And my inspiration was that what we once were, we were no longer. And I didn’t want my little girls to believe that that’s what love was.”

Though Mosby has emphasized that the charges carry up to 40 years in prison, the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System calculated the sentencing guidelines in the case at 18-24 months of incarceration.

Federal prosecutors are seeking 20 months in prison, saying that her “unremorseful and unrepentant actions belie any contrition, recognition, or deterrence.”

“She has displayed no remorse; she accepts no responsibility; she has no regrets for her actions; and she has consistently worked to undermine public faith in the justice system for her own benefit,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean Delaney and Aaron Zelinsky wrote in court documents.

Mosby’s attorneys, Federal Public Defender James Wyda and Assistant Federal Public Defenders Maggie Grace and Sedira Banan, are asking for probation and noting that she will appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

“Ms. Mosby has every right to maintain her innocence indefinitely,” they wrote in court documents. “She has a continuing constitutional right to proclaim her innocence and protest the prosecution.”

Through a representative, Mosby declined interview requests from The Baltimore Banner.

‘This entire case is driven by a political agenda’

As part of a recent media blitz, Mosby has made largely sympathetic appearances on “Native Land Pod” with Angela Rye, Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillum; “PoliticsNation” on MSNBC with the Rev. Al Sharpton; and “#RolandMartinUnfiltered” with Roland Martin and alleged that the prosecution was personally, politically and racially motivated and that she’s being punished for withdrawing her own money.

Those are arguments U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby, a Biden nominee who presided over both trials, barred her from making in court. Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek Barron, who’s also a Biden nominee, was in his position in 2022 when a grand jury indicted Mosby.

The NAACP and a coalition of more than a dozen organizations sent a letter to Biden urging him to pardon Mosby, calling the case a “miscarriage of justice and an example of the last administration’s misuse of authority.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and more than 50 other lawyers later joined the call. They include her former lead attorney, A. Scott Bolden, and Barry Scheck, a member of O.J. Simpson’s “Dream Team” and co-founder of the Innocence Project.

“The persecution of Black female progressive prosecutors is indicative of a disturbing trend that should have ended with the last administration,” Crump said in a statement. “But yet, here we are.”

“President Biden, we implore you to not follow in the treacherous steps of your predecessor. Put an end to this modern day witch hunt and immediately pardon Marilyn Mosby,” he said.

The Congressional Black Caucus also weighed in with a call for a pardon.

Meanwhile, a website called Justice for Marilyn Mosby includes a sizzle reel, information about a petition and a link to a GoFundMe that’s called, “Help Support America’s Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby.” There’s even an official playlist on Spotify that features songs such as “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar; “Hail Mary” by 2Pac; and “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye.

The president has broad power to pardon people, said Brian Kalt, a professor of law at Michigan State University whose research focuses on the presidency.

Most petitions, he said, go through the Office of the Pardon Attorney within the U.S. Department of Justice, which has regulations saying people must wait at least five years after a conviction or release from prison to request a pardon.

Failing to express remorse doesn’t mean a request will be rejected, but an attempt to “minimize or rationalize culpability does not advance the case for pardon,” according to the manual published by the Justice Department. It states that people seeking one on the basis of innocence or miscarriage of justice “bear a formidable burden of persuasion.”

“While pardon applications generally express remorse and regret, what happens when justice was not served and in fact, denied?” Mosby’s pardon application states. “No such remorse and regret is appropriate in this case.”

Kalt said there is no requirement the president follow a recommendation from the pardon attorney. But Kalt said he would be surprised if Biden pardoned Mosby.

“It sounds like a long shot, but maybe she figures she has nothing to lose,” Kalt said.

Since taking office in 2021, Biden has pardoned 24 people as of Friday, excluding his action related to thousands of convictions for simple cannabis possession.

When asked for a second time about the calls to pardon Mosby, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she could not speak about individual cases and noted that there is a thorough and deliberative process.

“I have not spoken to the president directly about it,” Jean-Pierre said.

‘She will rise again’

Mosby’s supporters — and even some people who’ve disagreed with her in the past — predicted that she will persevere.

Zy Richardson, a former director of communications for the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office, said Mosby connected to working-class Baltimoreans and was one of the most courageous leaders for whom she’s worked.

Mosby, she said, was intimately involved in decision making in the office. She was committed to people and justice, Richardson said.

Richardson described it as difficult to see Mosby at the defendant’s table while testifying at the first trial.

“This is still a woman who cared deeply about the city,” Richardson said. “She’s a mom. She’s a real person.”

She “loved Baltimore, to a fault, really, because it cost her everything,” said J. Wyndal Gordon, a defense attorney in Baltimore who wrote a character letter on behalf of Mosby.

For Mosby, he predicted, “like a Phoenix that rose from the ashes, she will rise again.”

Gordon believes that Mosby is “going to have it all” after completing her sentence. Book deals. Movie agreements. Entertainment contracts. He speculated that she could be a TV pundit or podcaster.

“People love her. She’s got this grit, this determination, this boldness that you can’t put a lid on,” Gordon said. “You can’t keep a woman like that down. She’s not just going to become a shrinking violet and go someplace.”

Roya Hanna, a defense attorney in Baltimore who’s sparred in the past with Mosby, also believes that she will “do great” in the future and reengage with the community.

Said Hanna: “I don’t think this is the end for Marilyn Mosby.”