MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A judge on Wednesday fired two jurors who were sitting for the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer accused of George Floyd’s death on concerns that they had been contaminated by the city’s announcement of a US settlement. $ 27 million with Floyd’s family.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill summoned seven jurors who were sitting before the deal was announced last week at the request of former Derek Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson. Cahill questioned everyone about what they knew about the settlement and whether it would affect their ability to serve.
The dismissal of just two jurors suggested that the impact of the settlement on the jury was less than feared, probably reducing Cahill’s chance of granting a defense request to delay the trial. The judge set March 29 for the opening statements if the selection of the jury is completed by then.
Cahill was careful to ask the jurors if they had heard about the deal without giving details, including whether they were exposed to “extensive media coverage of developments in a civil lawsuit between the city of Minneapolis and the family of George Floyd” .
The first dismissed juror, a white man in his 30s, said he heard about the deal and thought it would be “difficult to be impartial”.
“That tag price obviously shocked me,” said the second dismissed juror. The Hispanic man in his 20s said he thought he could put the news down, but he wasn’t sure.
Cahill kept five other jurors, including a black man in his 30s who said he heard about the deal on the radio on Friday night, but could decide the case based on the evidence presented in court. “It didn’t affect me at all because I don’t know the details,” he said.
Nelson announced the moment of the announcement in the middle of the jury selection “Deeply disturbing” and “not fair”.
Two additional judges were chosen on Wednesday, bringing the total to nine. There are five men and four women. Five are white, one is multiracial and three are black, and their ages vary between 20 and 50 years. Fourteen jurors, including two alternates, are needed.
The youngest jurors are a 40-year-old black man who said he worked in administration and who lived in the Twin Cities area for about two decades after immigrating to America, and a 40-year-old white woman who works as a consultant helping companies working through transitions.
The man said he had a neutral view of Chauvin and could start with a presumption of innocence. He said he trusts the police, but that it would be fair for a jury to assess the policeman’s actions.
The woman said she agreed that the police do not always treat whites and blacks in the same way, but that she has a very strong faith in the police in her community. She said it was important for people to cooperate with the police.
“I probably learned or learned along the way that you respect the police and do what they ask,” she said.
Several were dismissed, including a man whose race was not released who said he would tend to believe a policeman’s version of events rather than a citizen’s, and a black man who expressed negative views about the Minneapolis Police Department.
He said that Floyd is an example of another black man “killed” or “murdered” by the police and that he saw Minneapolis police ride through the area near Floyd’s prison and harass residents after someone was shot or arrested.
Another man who said he was white was dismissed after saying that he had watched the video of Floyd and Chauvin’s interaction several times and that it would be difficult for him to presume Chauvin’s innocence.
Chauvin is charged with murder and wrongful death in the death of Floyd on May 25, a black man who was pronounced dead after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee to his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death, captured on video from onlookers, sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests across the country and led to a national trial on racial justice.
The judge said he will decide on Friday on Nelson’s request to delay or move the trial and another to admit evidence of Floyd’s 2019 arrest in Minneapolis.
Three other former officers face a trial in August for Floyd’s death on charges of helping and encouraging second-degree murder and wrongful death.
The judge opened the court on Wednesday, threatening to remove a media pool and close a media center. A visibly angry Cahill described a pool report that included a reporter’s attempts to read notepads at the defense and prosecution tables and described security in the court where the trial is taking place.
Cahill said that any media that posts security details should take them down or risk being expelled from the media center. He did not quote reporters or media organizations.
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Find full AP coverage of George Floyd’s death: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
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This story has been corrected to show that the judge will decide on admission to a previous Floyd prison on Friday, not Thursday.