Charge added in Floyd death case
Judge reinstates 3rd-degree murder count in ex-officer’s trial
MINNEAPOLIS — A judge on Thursday granted prosecutors’ request to add a third-degree murder count against a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death, offering jurors an additional option for conviction and resolving an issue that might have delayed his trial for months.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill reinstated the charge after the former officer, Derek Chauvin, failed to get appellate courts to block it. Cahill had earlier rejected the charge as not warranted by the circumstances of Floyd’s death, but an appellate court ruling in an unrelated case established new grounds.
Chauvin already faced second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Legal experts say the additional charge helps prosecutors by giving jurors another option to find Chauvin guilty of murder. Cahill told potential jurors after the ruling that he still expects opening statements March 29.
The dispute over the third-degree murder charge centered on wording in the law that refers to an act “eminently dangerous to others.” Cahill’s initial decision to dismiss the charge noted that Chauvin’s conduct might be construed as not dangerous to anyone but Floyd.
But prosecutors sought to revive the charge after the state’s Court of Appeals recently upheld the third-degree murder conviction of another former Minneapolis police officer in the 2017 killing of an Australian woman. They argued that the ruling established precedent that the charge could be brought even in a case where only a single person is endangered.
Arguments over when the precedent from former officer Mohamed Noor’s case took effect went swiftly to the state’s Supreme Court, which on Wednesday said it would not consider Chauvin’s appeal. Cahill said Thursday that he accepts that precedent has been clearly established.
“I feel bound by that and I feel it would be an abuse of discretion not to grant the motion,” he said.
Floyd was declared dead May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against the Black man’s neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked sometimes violent protests in Minneapolis and beyond, leading to a nationwide reckoning on race.
Jury selection resumed Thursday for the third day as attorneys grappled further with the challenges of seating an impartial and diverse jury in such a high-profile case. By day’s end, the jury included five men and one woman. Cahill said three are white, one is multiracial, one is Hispanic and one is Black.
The sole juror picked Thursday described himself as an outgoing, family-oriented soccer fan for whom the prospect of the trial was “kind of exciting.”
The man, who said his favorite team is the Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, said he’s also a fan of true crime podcasts and TV shows. He acknowledged under questioning from defense attorney Eric Nelson that he had a “very negative” impression of Chauvin. The man wrote on his questionnaire that he had seen the widely viewed bystander video of Floyd “desperately screaming that he couldn’t breathe” even as other officers stood by and bystanders shouted that Chauvin was killing Floyd.
Yet asked whether he could set his opinions aside and stick to the evidence presented in court, he replied: “I’m willing to see all the evidence and everything, hear witnesses.”
Several other candidates were dismissed, including a woman who said she “can’t unsee the video” of Chauvin pinning Floyd, and a man who said he has doubts about Black Lives Matter and the way the group pursues its goals.