A 7th juror is added to the Derek Chauvin murder trial

MINNEAPOLIS — Potential jurors in the Derek Chauvin murder trial were assembled for a fourth day this week, and one found out Friday afternoon that she will join six others already chosen to weigh charges in connection with the death of George Floyd.

Jury selection resumed Friday morning in Hennepin County District Court, where the fired Minneapolis police officer is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and the newly reinstated third-degree murder count.

On Thursday, several prospective jurors revealed feeling emotionally distressed while viewing video of Chauvin, a white officer, pinning the Black man to the pavement for more than nine minutes at a south Minneapolis street corner as he pleaded to breathe.

Floyd begged for his life with Chauvin’s knee on his neck for more than nine minutes and died that night on May

25, setting off sometimes violent and destructive civil unrest for days along much of Lake Street and elsewhere in Minneapolis and parts of neighboring

St. Paul.

When court adjourned for the day Friday, the jury so far includes one multiracial woman in her 20s, one Black man in his 30s, one Hispanic man in his 20s, a white woman in her 50s, and three white men, two in their 30s and one in his 20s.

The questioning of jury candidates resumes Monday morning and continues until 14 are chosen. Two of them will be dismissed once the trial in earnest begins March 29 before District Judge Peter Cahill.

The seventh juror seated is a single mother who is a high-level executive in the nonprofit sector focused on health care. She took the unusual move of summoning her own attorney to the courthouse.

Former Officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are set to go on trial together Aug. 23 on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.