Derek Chauvin trial to stay in Minneapolis
Judge Peter Cahill’s rulings came one week after the city agreed to pay $27 million to Floyd’s estate — an announcement defense lawyers argued prejudiced their client in the middle of jury selection. Separately, the judge ruled to allow limited evidence from 2019 encounter between Floyd and the police.
The Minneapolis city council unanimously voted last week to settle the lawsuit with Floyd’s family.
The public announcement of the settlement in the middle of jury selection infuriated Chauvin’s defense, who argued that it prejudiced jurors against their client. Attorney Eric Nelson asked Judge Cahill to move and delay the trial in light of the publicity.
Nelson said it was “perplexing” that the settlement was announced during jury selection.
“Unfortunately I think the pretrial publicity in this case will continue no matter how long we continue it,” Cahill said Friday morning in announcing his decisions. “And as far as a change of venue, I do not think it that would give the defendant any kind of a fair trial beyond what we are doing here today. I don’t think there’s any place in the state of Minnesota that has not been subjected to extreme amounts of publicity on this case.”
The defense requests for a trial delay and change of venue came on Monday, the start of the second week of jury selection in the trial of Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police officer accused of killing Floyd on May 25, 2020.
Floyd’s final moments, recorded on video, led to widespread protests against police brutality and racism under the Black Lives Matter banner as well as incidents of unrest and looting.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is leading the prosecution, said in a statement Friday that the “court has taken careful, considered steps to mitigate the effects of pre-trial publicity that make a continuance and change of venue unnecessary.”
“A week ahead of schedule, both sides have now agreed on 12 jurors, more than half of whom were selected since early last Friday afternoon and all of whom have been carefully screened for impartiality in the face of inevitable pre-trial publicity not only in Hennepin County, but in every part of Minnesota,” the statement said.
Jury selection continued on Friday, with two more jurors to be selected. Opening statements are expected to start no earlier than March 29, followed by testimony that could take about four weeks.
Cahill also decided on Friday to admit limited evidence of a May 6, 2019, encounter between Floyd and police.
Floyd’s 2019 arrest came a little more than a year before Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes as Floyd told Chauvin and three other officers he couldn’t breathe.
“The whole point here is we have medical evidence on what happens when Mr. Floyd is faced with virtually the same situation,” the judge said.
The defense had previously requested that the trial be moved out of Minneapolis, but Cahill preliminarily rejected the request in November.
Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. He has also pleaded not guilty to third-degree murder, a charge reinstated in the case on Mach 11.
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