Derek Chauvin murder trial delayed for decision on extra charge
The judge overseeing the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering George Floyd delayed the start of jury selection on Monday for at least a day while an appeal proceeds over the possible reinstatement of an additional charge.
Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the courthouse demanding racial justice and the conviction of Derek Chauvin, who is white and was fired and charged with murder after he knelt on Floyd’s neck when the Black man had been forced to the ground during an attempted arrest last May.
Chauvin is charged with seconddegree murder and manslaughter but the Minnesota court of appeals ruled last Friday that a previous, lesser charge of third-degree murder should be reinstated in the trial by the judge, Peter Cahill.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lead lawyer, told the court on Monday morning that Chauvin would soon ask the Minnesota supreme court to overturn Friday’s order, a process that could take weeks.
Prosecutors from the Minnesota attorney general’s office urged the court to delay jury selection until that issue was resolved, fearing that picking a jury when the number of charges was still unresolved could make an appeal easier.
Cahill declined. Prosecutors then said they would ask the appeals court to intervene to delay the trial. Cahill suspended the proceedings until Tuesday morning.
The second-degree murder charge against Chauvin, 44, carries a maximum prison sentence of 40 years. He also faces federal civil rights charges at a later date.
Three other former Minneapolis officers are charged with aiding and abetting murder by Chauvin and are due to be tried together in August.
Outside the court building in
Minneapolis, blocked with concrete barricades, barbed wire and razor wire, protesters gathered for several blocks early on Monday.
They held signs that read: “Justice for George Floyd” and “Convict Killer Cops” as chants of “What did you think no justice, no peace meant?” and “Black lives, they matter here” echoed off the downtown skyscrapers.
Joseph Callahan, a 70-year-old peace and justice activist, who started demonstrating in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and has protested against police killings in Minnesota since 1987, was there.
“I made this sign ‘The whole world is watching’ because it’s true. The video of Derek Chauvin torturing George Floyd fortified people in the world,” he told the Guardian on Monday morning.
He added: “I hope that Derek Chauvin and the three other cops are convicted, I’m cautiously optimistic that Derek Chauvin will be.”
Chauvin denies all the charges. Minneapolis and its adjacent “twin city”, St Paul, are tense with a mix of expectation and, especially among communities of color, some dread. The civil rights uprising after Floyd’s killing spilled over into violence at first but also spurred the biggest protests against systemic racism and police brutality since the 1960s.
Protesters on Monday called for justice in the name of Floyd but also for others killed by police in Minnesota and across the US, over decades.
In a different kind of demonstration on Sunday protesters in Minneapolis had dressed in all black, silently marching while carrying a banner that read “I Can’t Breathe”, echoing the dying words of George Floyd and other police brutality victims, including Eric Garner in New York City in 2014, and a white casket topped with roses, in a symbolic funeral procession.
Marchers also carried a scroll with hundreds of names and dates representing police-involved deaths in Minnesota since 2000.
“I’m out here to show support to the community I’m in and help in any way that I can. I believe that the whole system is very corrupt especially towards Black lives,” said Ajah Heikes, a 14-year-old student.
The diverse crowd of protesters spanned generations and many racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“I’m here because I love Minneapolis and I’m ashamed and horrified that we have allowed this to go on for so long, that our police can be so evil and we don’t address it,” said Mary Everett, 65.
She added: “I hope other older white women see that we need to be out here. This is on us, we need to fix this. We created this system, we’ve benefited from it.”
There were efforts to disband the police department in Minneapolis after Floyd’s death, restructuring law enforcement and public safety, but they were knocked back.
“Justice extends beyond the trial and it extends to ‘how are we as a city going to respond after this trial?’ How are we going to change things so that this doesn’t happen again?” protester Grace Goins, 25, said, adding: “Real change and not just little reforms here and there.”
Lawyers for Chauvin have argued that he correctly followed his training in helping colleagues arrest Floyd on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill at the Cup Foods grocery store last May.
The medical examiner ruled that Floyd’s death was a homicide caused partly by police restraint holds. But the autopsy report also noted that Floyd had recently ingested the opioid fentanyl, and Chauvin’s lawyers contend that an overdose was the main cause of death.
Jury selection is expected to take at least three weeks.
“You don’t want jurors who are completely blank slates, because that would mean they’re not in tune at all with the world,” Susan Gaertner, a former prosecutor, said, preferring “jurors who can set aside opinions that have formed prior” and give both sides a fair hearing.