Ex-cops in Floyd case to be tried together
In an important win for the prosecution, a judge ruled Thursday that the four officers charged in the killing of George Floyd, a Black man from Houston who took some of his last breaths under the knee of awhite officer on a Minneapolis street corner in May, will stand trial together.
Judge Peter Cahill in Minneapolis also ruled that the media can broadcast the trial, scheduled for next spring. It was an unusual move for the Twin Cities, where courts are generally closed to cameras. The judge cited the coronavirus pandemic, which limits the number of people who can be in the courtroomat any time, and the immense national and international interest in the case.
“Protests demanding justice for George Floyd continue,” Cahill wrote in his ruling. “It is expected that, even with some overflow courtrooms, the demand by family members, the public and the press to attend the joint trial will outstrip the court’ s ability to provide meaningful access .”
Cahill also said the trial will remain — for now — in the Twin Cities, although he left open the possibility of moving it later if the court can’t seat a jury untainted by the vast publicity the case has generated.
The defendants, including Derek Chauvin, thewhite officer who pinned Floyd to the ground for more than nine minutes, had asked the court for a change of venue, arguing that they wouldn’t be able to get a fair trial in Minneapolis because of pretrial publicity and the wide-scale protests against racial injustice that Floyd’s death sparked in Minneapolis and around the world.
Experts following the case have said they believe Cahill is determined to keep the case in the Twin Cities, understanding that moving the trial likely would provoke new protests and fears of a less diverse jury.
Such a move would have evoked the history of the Rodney King case in Los Angeles in1992. The trial against the police officers who beat King was moved to a largely white suburb, resulting in acquittals on assault charges that led to riots.
Cahill also ordered that the jurors would remain anonymous and said they would be partly sequestered during the trial and ordered to drive each morning to a secure location before being escorted to the courtroom.
State Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is overseeing the prosecution, said in a statement that hewas satisfied with the court’s decision.
“The murder of George Floyd occurred in Minneapolis, and it is right that the defendants should be tried in Minneapolis,” he said. “It is also true that they acted in concert with each other, and the evidence against them is similar, so it is right to try them in one trial.”
Chauvin, who had been a 19year veteran on the police force, is charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and faces 40 years in prison if convicted.
The other officers, including two rookies who had aided Chauvin in pinning Floyd to the pavement in front of a convenience store, are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
Former officer Tou Thao, who knelt to the side and kept away by-standers who were yelling that Floyd couldn’t breathe, also is charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
All four former officers, who were fired after the incident, are free on bail.
The two rookie officers, Thomas Lane and Alexander Kueng, were the first on the scene the evening of May 25 after a convenience store clerk called police, saying Floyd had tried to pass off a counterfeit $20 bill to pay for cigarettes.
From the start, Floyd, 46, was agitated and resisted being put in the back of a squad car, saying he was claustrophobic. After Chauvin arrived, Floyd was placed face down on the street, where he repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe.
As bystanders gathered, one of them captured the scene on a cellphone camera. In video that was viewed around the world and provoked weeks of unrest in U.S. cities, Floyd continued to say he couldn’t breathe and called out for his mother.
By the time paramedics arrived, Floyd went limp and seemed to stop breathing. He was later declared dead at a hospital.
Earl Gray, the lawyer for Lane, and Eric Nelson, the lawyer for Chauvin, declined to comment on the judge’s rulings. Lawyers for the other two former officers didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.