Minneapolis judge starts jury selection in trial over George Floyd death
Protesters march before the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Monday. A jury selection started on Tuesday for the police officer charged in the death of George Floyd.
A judge in Minneapolis began screening jurors on Tuesday in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former policeman facing criminal charges for his role in the death of George Floyd during an arrest that caused an outcry around the world.
The trial is seen as a landmark case on police violence against black people in the United States, where police officers are rarely found to be criminally responsible for killing civilians.
The trial on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter had been scheduled to begin on Monday. But Judge Peter Cahill of the Hennepin County district court was stymied by an 11th-hour ruling by the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Friday that ordered him to reconsider the request by prosecutors to reinstate a third charge of third-degree murder.
Chauvin’s lawyers are asking the state Supreme Court to prevent the additional charge being applied.
Prosecutors in the Minnesota attorney general’s office told the court they do not think the trial can start until the appeal issues have been cleared up, and said they would seek an order from a higher court delaying it.
“Unless the Court of Appeals tells me otherwise, we’re going to keep going,” the judge said on Monday.
Chauvin, 44, would face up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge. Floyd was declared dead on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against the black man’s neck for about nine minutes, holding his position even after Floyd went limp.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse as proceedings began on Monday, many carrying signs that read, “Justice for George Floyd” and “Convict Killer Cops.”
One speaker, DJ Hooker, took a microphone and decried the “cage” of concrete barriers topped by chain-link fencing, barbed wire and razor wire up around the courthouse, part of at least US$1 million that has been spent to fortify the downtown area during the trial.
Jury selection could take at least three weeks and will end when 14 jurors are picked — 12 who will deliberate and two alternates. The potential jurors, who must be at least 18, US citizens and residents of Hennepin County, were sent an unusually detailed 16-page questionnaire to determine how much they have heard about the case and whether they’ve formed any opinions.
