In 2015, Murphy served as attorney for the family of Freddie Gray, who died during an encounter with the Baltimore police. Murphy has long been critical of the ways law-enforcement practices can unfairly harm African-Americans. Even in 1999, Murphy denounced "zero tolerance" as an approach to policing and advocated requiring police officers to cary "audiotape recorders" as a means of improving courtesy and making officers "less inclined to commit perjury."