A judge said Friday he will not delay or transfer the trial to former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of murder and murder at the hands of the death of George Floyd. Chauvin ‘s lawyers had raised concerns that a Settlement of $ 27 million because Floyd’s family could contaminate the jury group.
The judge will allow limited evidence of when Floyd was arrested in 2019. Meanwhile, a 13th jury was sitting on Friday, a woman who said she has only seen clips from the video of Floyd’s arrest and needs to learn more about the which happened previously. The jury will include 12 jurors and two alternates, and jury selection will continue Monday morning.
The process was completed halfway last week when Minneapolis City Council announced that it had unanimously approved the mass payment to settle a civil rights lawsuit over Floyd’s death. Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, later tried to stop or move the trial, considering the timing of the deal was deeply disturbing and said it jeopardized Chauvin’s possibility of a fair trial.
But Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, who has described the moment as “unfortunate,” said he thought a delay would do nothing to curb the problem of preventive advertising. As for the transfer of the trial, he said there is no place in Minnesota that has not been affected by this publicity.
The judge awarded a victory to the defense in ruling that the jury may hear evidence of Floyd’s arrest in 2019, but only possible evidence related to the cause of his death in 2020. He acknowledged that there are several similarities between the two clashes, including Floyd swallowing drugs after police confronted him.
The judge previously said the previous arrest could not be admitted, but new evidence made him reconsider: drugs were found in January in a second police SUV search the four officers tried to put Floyd in last year. . The defense argues that Floyd’s drug use contributed to his death.
Cahill said it 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 small video clip of an officer’s body camera. He said Floyd’s “emotional behavior,” such as calling his mother, will not be allowed.
But Cahill said he has no plans, for the time being, to allow the testimony of a forensic psychiatrist for the prosecution. Floyd said he had claustrophobia and was reluctant to get into the squad car before last year’s fatal encounter, and the state wanted Dr. Sarah Vinson to declare her actions consistent with a normal person. who experienced severe stress, rather than falsifying it or resisting arrest.
The judge said he would reconsider allowing her as a witness to rebuttal if the defense somehow opens the door, but that allowing him to testify could introduce all the evidence for Floyd’s arrest in 2019.
“Clearly there is a cause of death here and it is highly contested,” said Cahill, who noted that both arrests involved Floyd’s heart problems and drug ingestion.
The county forensic doctor classified Floyd’s death as a homicide, with an initial summary saying he “had a cardiorespiratory arrest while police held him.” Floyd was pronounced dead at a hospital 2.5 miles from where he was detained.
The full report said he died “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating the subdual of law enforcement, restraint and neck compression.” A summary report lists fentanyl poisoning and recent methamphetamine use in “other significant conditions” but not in “cause of death.”
The previous arrest “adds a little more weight” to the defense plan to argue that Floyd risked his life swallowing drugs again and that, combined with his health problems, caused his death, Ted said Sampsell-Jones, a professor at Mitchell Hamline Law School.
“Jurors aren’t supposed to be influenced by that kind of thing, but they’re human,” Sampsell-Jones said.
Local defense attorney Mike Brandt said it could also hurt prosecutors’ attempts to portray Floyd as a “soft giant,” whose reaction came to the 2020 incident because of the stress of the encounter and that Chauvin scaled it.
Still, it doesn’t necessarily hurt the prosecution because they can point out the different results, said another local attorney, Ryan Pacyga. “The prosecution can come back and say, ‘Wait, he didn’t die before.’ What difference will it make? They’ll point a knee at his neck,” Pacyga said.
Floyd, who was black, was pronounced dead on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee to his neck for about nine minutes while handcuffed and asked that he not be able to breathe. Floyd’s death, captured in a widely viewed video from viewers, sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests across the country and led to a national calculation on racial justice.
The 13 jurors seated until Thursday are divided by race: seven are white, four are black and two are multiracial, according to the court.
Legal experts and local defense attorneys said the last two jurors chosen are almost always alternates, and some said they had never seen him do it 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 chosen “in many different ways,” but declined to give details.
“You can see in this case why (Cahill) may want to do something different, like take numbers out of a hat,” Sampsell-Jones said, adding that the judge needs all jurors to pay attention during the duration of the judges. “If they are the last two and it is published in the press, it is possible that the last two will find out that they are substitutes. What Cahill should avoid.”
The woman he chose on Friday morning, a white woman in her fifties, is among jobs, said she has volunteered with homeless people and wants to work on affordable housing issues.
He said he has never personally seen police officers respond to black people or minorities more strongly than whites and that a person should have nothing to fear from the police if he cooperates and obeys orders. He stopped saying that means a person deserves to be hurt.
“If you don’t listen to what the orders are, obviously something else has to happen to resolve the situation,” he said about the officers ’actions. “I don’t know how far the steps have to go.”
Opening statements are March 29 if the jury is already full by then. This process is nearing completion almost a week earlier.
Three more former officers facing an August trial for the death of Floyd accused of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and homicide.