Ex-officers in George Floyd’s death will be tried together
In booking photos, from left, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, the former police officers charged in the killing of George Floyd.
In an important win for the prosecution, a judge in Minneapolis on Thursday ruled that the four officers charged in the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who took some of his last breaths under the knee of a white officer on a Minneapolis street corner in May, will stand trial together.
The judge also ruled that the news media can broadcast the trial, scheduled for next spring — an unusual move in Minneapolis, where courts are generally closed to cameras. The judge cited the coronavirus pandemic, which limits the number of people who can be in the courtroom at any time, and the immense national and international interest in the case.
“Protests demanding justice for George Floyd continue,” the judge, Peter Cahill ofHennepin County, wrote in his ruling. “It is expected that, even with some overflowcourtrooms, 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 is unable to seat a jury untainted by the vast publicity the case has already generated.
The defendants, including Derek Chauvin, the white officer who pinned Floyd to the ground for more than nine minutes, had asked the court for a change of venue, arguing that theywould not be able to receive a fair trial in Minneapolis because of pretrial publicity and the wide-scale protests against racial injustice Floyd’s death sparked inMinneapolis and around the country aswell theworld.
Experts following the case in Minneapolis have said they believe Cahill is determined to keep the case in the Twin Cities, understanding that moving the trial would likely provokenewprotests and fears of a less diverse jury.
Such amovewould have evoked the history of the Rodney King case in Los Angeles in 1992. The trial against the police officers who beat King was moved to awhite 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 partially sequestered during the trial and ordered to drive each morning to a secure location, from where they would be escorted to the courtroom.
Attorney General Keith Ellison of Minnesota, whose office is overseeing the prosecution, said in a statement that hewas satisfied with the decision.
“The murder of George Floyd occurred in Minneapolis, and it is right that the defendants should be tried in Minneapolis,” he said.
Chauvin, whohadbeena 19-year-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 aidingandabetting seconddegree murder. Former officer Tou Thao, who knelt to the side and kept at bay bystanders who were yelling that Floyd was having difficulty breathing, is also charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
All four former officers, who were fired after the incident, have been released on bail.
The two rookie officers, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, were the first on the scene after a store clerk called the police saying that Floyd had tried to pass off a counterfeit $20 bill to pay for cigarettes.