A judge said on Friday that he was holding the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. Chauvin’s lawyers had expressed concern that a $ 27 million settlement because Floyd’s family could hurt the jury.
The judge will allow limited evidence from when Floyd was arrested in 2019. Meanwhile, a 13th jury member sat Friday – a woman who said she’s only seen clips from the video of Floyd’s arrest and needs to know more about what happened beforehand. The jury consists of 12 jury members and two alternates, and the jury selection will continue on Monday morning.
The lawsuit was completed midway through last week when Minneapolis City Council announced it had unanimously agreed to the massive payout to settle a civil rights lawsuit over Floyd’s death. Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, then tried to stop or reschedule the trial, citing the timing of the settlement as very troubling and saying it jeopardized Chauvin’s chances of a fair trial.
But Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, who has called the timing “unfortunate,” said he thought a postponement would do nothing to fix the problem of the preliminary publicity. As for moving the lawsuit, he said there is no place in Minnesota that has not been touched by that publicity.
The judge gave the defense a win by ruling that the jury can hear evidence of Floyd’s arrest in 2019, but only evidence that may relate to the cause of his death in 2020. He acknowledged that there are several similarities between the two encounters, including that Floyd swallowed drugs. after the police confronted him.
The judge previously said the earlier arrest could not be admitted, but new evidence prompted him to reconsider: drugs were found in a second search of the police SUV in January that the four officers tried to bring in Floyd last year. The defense argues that Floyd’s drug use contributed to his death.
Cahill said he would allow medical evidence of Floyd’s physical reactions, such as his dangerously high blood pressure when he was examined by a paramedic in 2019, and a short clip from an officer’s camera video. He said Floyd’s “emotional behavior,” such as calling out to his mother, will not be allowed.
But Cahill said he has no plans for the time being to allow a forensic psychiatrist’s testimony to the prosecution. Floyd said he had claustrophobia and opposed getting into the patrol car before last year’s fatal encounter, and the state wanted Dr. Sarah Vinson to testify that his actions were consistent with a normal person experiencing severe stress, as opposed to falsifying or resisting arrest.
The judge said he would reconsider allowing her as a rebuttal witness if the defense somehow opens the door, but that allowing her to testify would be all evidence of Floyd’s 2019 arrest. can usher in.
“It is clear that there is a cause of death issue here, and it is very controversial,” said Cahill, noting that both arrests involved Floyd’s heart problems and drug intake.
The district medical examiner classified Floyd’s death as murder, with an initial summary stating that he had “suffered cardiac arrest while being restrained by the police.” Floyd was pronounced dead in a hospital 2.5 miles from where he was being held.
The full report said he died of “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating subdual law enforcement, restraint and neck compression.” A summary report listed fentanyl poisoning and recent methamphetamine use under “other significant circumstances” but not under “cause of death.”
The earlier arrest “adds a little more weight” to the defense’s plan to claim that Floyd endangered his life by taking drugs again and that, coupled with his health problems, caused his death, Ted Sampsell-Jones said. a professor at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
“Jurors shouldn’t be influenced by that sort of thing, but they’re human,” said Sampsell-Jones.
Local attorney Mike Brandt said it could also hurt prosecutors’ attempts to portray Floyd as a “gentle giant” whose response to the 2020 incident was due to the stress of the encounter, and that Chauvin escalated it.
Still, it doesn’t necessarily hurt the prosecution, as they can point out the different outcomes, said another local attorney, Ryan Pacyga. ‘The prosecution can come back and say,’ Wait, he didn’t die before. ‘ What is the difference? They will point to the knee on the neck, ”Pacyga said.
Floyd, who was black, was pronounced dead on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee back into his neck for about nine minutes while he was handcuffed and begged that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd’s death, captured in a much-watched bystander video, sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests across the country and sparked a national rally over racial justice.
The 13 judges who sit through Thursday are divided according to the competition: seven are white, four are black and two are multiracial, the court said.
Legal experts and local defense attorneys said the last two jurors elected are almost always deputies, and some said they had never seen it done any other way. But the court said that would not necessarily be the case for Chauvin’s jury. Spokesman Kyle Christopherson said alternates could be elected “in many different ways,” but declined to provide details.
“You can see in this case why (Cahill) might want to do something else, like pull numbers out of a hat,” Sampsell-Jones said, adding that the judge needs all jurors to pay attention to during the course of the trial. . “If it’s the last two, and it gets published in the press, then the last two may find out they are alternates. That’s what Cahill should avoid. ”
The woman chosen Friday morning – a white woman in her 50s – is in between jobs, said she has volunteered with homeless people and wants to work on affordable housing issues.
She said she has never seen police officers personally respond with more force to black people or minorities than white people and that anyone has nothing to fear from the police if they cooperate and keep the commandments. She stopped saying someone deserves to be harmed.
“Of course, if you don’t listen to what the commands are, something else needs to be done to resolve the situation,” she said of the agents’ actions. “I don’t know how far the steps should go.”
Opening statements are March 29 when the jury is complete. That process is on track to end almost a week early.
Three other former officers faced an August trial in Floyd’s death on charges of complicity in second-degree murder and manslaughter.