Seventh juror added to 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. Questioning began with the first potential juror, a woman, who was familiar with the case and believed she could be impartial.
On Thursday, several prospective jurors revealed feeling emotionally distressed while viewing video of Mr. 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 while under Mr. Chauvin’s knee 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.
As of Friday afternoon, the jury is made up of 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. A jury of 14, two of them alternates, will be seated before opening statements and testimony begin 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.
She told defense attorney Eric Nelson that she had prior professional dealings with Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office but didn’t know him personally. She later told questioner Steve Schleicher for the prosecution that “all of our interactions [with Mr. Ellison] were positive at the time” and would have no impact on her ability to be a fair juror.
The woman said the bystander video left her with a somewhat negative view of Mr. Chauvin, explaining that “a man died, and I am not sure that’s procedure. ... Not all police are bad, but the bad-behavior police needs to go.”
At the same time, she acknowledged sympathy for Floyd and the officers at the scene, saying, “Everyone’s lives are changed by this incident ... and it’s not easy for anyone.”
She was followed by the next prospective juror, a young woman who was quickly excused after explaining that she was starting a new job and attempting to move.
The first jury candidate to be questioned Friday, a recent college graduate, carefully chose her words as she gave answers.
She was asked about her ability to consider only the evidence presented at trial and not just the bystander video that she said was so inhumane that she had to stop watching it, and she replied that she could.
“What I saw as a human, that did not give me a good impression,” said the woman, who disclosed that she participated in a social justice protest in Duluth after Floyd died. “I just couldn’t watch it anymore.”
Mr. Nelson followed with questions about her willingness to accept information about policies that guide police procedure and whether she was willing to listen to both sides. She assured Mr. Nelson that she would on both counts if seated. After a brief huddle with his legal team, he used a strike and had the woman dismissed.
The prosecution exercised one of its strikes and dismissed a prospective juror who served in the Army Reserve for eight years and was deployed to Iraq. He was questioned extensively about whether he could give equal weight to the testimony of police officers versus bystanders at the scene.
“Being in the military, it’s easy for bystanders to say how they would react in that situation,” the man said, while insisting he would not give law enforcement an edge in credibility. He said the fact that Mr. Chauvin also served in the military would not affect his opinion.
On Thursday, Judge Cahill added a third-degree murder charge against Mr. Chauvin following a series of appellate decisions that forced him to walk back two of his previous rulings on the matter.
The move endorsed the contention that Mr. Chauvin’s actions met the definition of a third-degree murder count and was seen by some legal analysts as strategic to winning a conviction but not without potential drawbacks.
The revived count provides jurors more opportunities to convict Mr. Chauvin and could be viewed as a compromise between the other charges he faces — the more serious seconddegree murder and manslaughter. But it presents its own uncertainties.
Former Officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are to go on trial together Aug. 23 on charges of aiding and abetting second- degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.