Attorneys in officer’s trial probe jurors about police
Attorneys in the trial of a Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death questioned potential jurors Wednesday about their attitudes toward both law enforcement and the Black Lives Matter movement, with one man who was chosen for the panel saying he views the racial justice movement more favorably than he does police.
The man, who works in sales management and grew up in a mostly white part of central Minnesota, acknowledged saying on his written questionnaire that he had a “very favorable” opinion of Black Lives Matter and a “somewhat unfavorable” impression of the Blue Lives Matter countermovement in favor of police, yet “somewhat agreed” that police don’t get the respect they deserve.
“Are there bad police officers? Yes. Are there good ones? Yes. I don’t think it’s right to blame the entire organization,” he told the court.
The man joined three others who were selected for the panel on Tuesday, the first day of jury selection in Derek Chauvin’s trial on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. It’s a grinding process during which attorneys ask the prospective jurors one by one whether they could keep an open mind, what they think of the criminal justice system, how they resolve conflicts and much more.
Floyd was declared dead on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against the Black man’s neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked sometimes violent protests in Minneapolis and beyond, leading to a nationwide reckoning on race.
Chauvin and three other officers were fired. The others face an August trial on aiding and abetting charges.
The juror chosen for the panel on Wednesday also said he has Minnesota Vikings’ season tickets as part of a family group. He said he doesn’t have a problem with players taking a knee to protest racism and doesn’t consider it disrespectful to police or the military, as critics of the practice do.
He said he had one potential problem — he’s scheduled to get married May 1 in Florida but was prepared to change his plans if the trial continues that long. Opening statements are scheduled for no sooner than March 29 and testimony is expected to last about four weeks, so it could get tight.
“We’ll do our best to get you to your wedding,” Judge Peter Cahill said as he informed the man he was on the jury. “Go ahead and throw me under the bus with your fiancée.”
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher used a peremptory challenge Wednesday to remove from the panel a woman who has a nephew who’s a sheriff ’s deputy in western Minnesota. She said she was dismayed by the violence that followed Floyd’s death.
“I personally didn’t see any usefulness to it,” she said. “I didn’t see anything accomplished by it, except I suppose bring attention to the frustrations of the people involved. But did I see anything useful coming out of the burning of Lake Street and that sort of thing? I did not.”
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, exercised two of his 15 peremptory challenges Tuesday on potential jurors who identify as Hispanic, which led prosecutors to object that the jurors were being rejected because of their race. Cahill disagreed, noting that the second Hispanic juror to be dismissed had martial arts experience and referred to Chauvin’s restraint as an “illegal” move.
Among those questioned Tuesday, three in the pool were seated on the jury, and six others were dismissed by day’s end. The process actually began months ago, when potential jurors responded to an extensive questionnaire that explored their familiarity with the case and their own contacts with police.