12th juror is picked; attorneys clash over expert in Floyd trial
MINNEAPOLIS — Attorneys at the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death nearly finished jury selection Thursday by choosing three more panelists, hours after clashing over how much they should hear of Floyd’s own actions.
Twelve jurors have now been selected, leaving just two alternates yet to be chosen. So far, six of the jurors are white, four are Black and two are multiracial, according to the court.
The newest jurors include a white registered nurse in her 50s who assured the court that she wouldn’t draw on her medical knowledge at Derek Chauvin’s trial and a Black woman in her 60s who said she didn’t watch the entire bystander video of Floyd’s arrest and didn’t know enough to form a firm opinion of Chauvin or Floyd.
The 12th juror, a white woman in her 40s who works in the commercial insurance business, said she has experience with someone who struggled with alcohol and might view someone who uses drugs cautiously, saying they could act violently or aggressively when under the influence.
Still, the woman said she doesn’t ascribe to the sentiment that someone who uses drugs or doesn’t cooperate with police should be treated poorly. “If someone uses drugs, I don’t think there should be ramifications of violence for that,” she said.
Earlier, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell argued that a forensic psychiatrist should be allowed to testify on how Floyd’s behavior, as officers attempted to put him in the squad car, was consistent with any reasonable person’s anxiety or panic during a traumatic event. Officers pointed a gun at Floyd after he allegedly tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store, and he struggled and told them he had claustrophobia as they tried to force him into the car.
Prosecutors want to show that Floyd wasn’t actually resisting arrest — as Blackwell said defense attorney Eric Nelson intended to argue — but might have been panicking and physically unable to comply with officers’ orders.
“The defense is doing a full-on trial of George Floyd, who is not on trial, but that is what they’re doing,” said Blackwell, adding that the defense also planned to make arguments about Floyd’s drug use.
Nelson said that if the prosecution gets to present that evidence to the jury, the defense should be able to tell the jury about Floyd’s drug arrest in May 2019, when he did not resist getting put into a squad car.
Nelson also has said there are striking similarities between the two encounters that could show a pattern of behavior.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill said he’ll rule on the forensic psychiatrist’s testimony Friday, when he plans to issue a broader ruling on the admissibility of Floyd’s 2019 arrest and on defense motions for delaying or moving the trial.
Chauvin is charged with murder and manslaughter in the May 25 death of Floyd, a Black man who was declared dead after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death, captured on bystander video, set off weeks of sometimesviolent protests across the country and led to a national reckoning on racial justice.
Three other former officers face an August trial in Floyd’s death on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.