Chauvin trial is set to go to jury
MINNEAPOLIS — Former police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial in George Floyd’s death will be in a jury’s hands by early next week, after his brief defense wrapped up with Chauvin passing on a chance to take the stand and tell the public for the first time what he was thinking when he pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck.
Closing arguments are set to begin Monday, after which a racially diverse jury will begin deliberating in a city on edge — not just because of the Chauvin case but because of the deadly police shooting of a 20year-old Black man in a Minneapolis suburb last weekend. Minneapolis public schools announced they would revert to distance learning starting Wednesday in anticipation of a verdict.
Before the jury was brought in Thursday, Chauvin informed the judge he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. Shortly afterward, the defense rested its case, after a total of two days of testimony, compared with two weeks for the prosecution.
Judge Peter Cahill reminded the jurors they will be sequestered starting Monday and said: “If I were you, I would plan for long and hope for short.”
Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death after the 46-year-old Black man was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 at a neighborhood market last May.
The most serious charge against the now-fired white officer, second-degree murder, carries up to 40 years in prison, though state guidelines call for about 12.
Prosecutors say Floyd died because the officer’s knee was pressed against Floyd’s neck or close to it for 9 ½ minutes as he lay on the pavement on his stomach, his hands cuffed behind him and his face jammed against the ground.
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson argued that Chauvin acted reasonably against a struggling suspect and that Floyd died because of an underlying heart condition and his illegal drug use.
With the verdict nearing, Minneapolis has been bracing for a possible repeat of the protests and violence that broke out last spring over Floyd’s death.