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The Minnesota appeals court ordered a judge to reconsider adding third-degree murder to charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was accused of killing George Floyd last year.
The development could delay Chauvin’s trial, which is expected to start with the jury’s choice on Monday.
Floyd, who was black, died on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck while he was handcuffed and begging that he could not breathe.
The murder, which a viewer recorded on video, sparked the biggest civil rights revolt in the United States since the 1960s, sometimes turning into rioting, but reinvigorating the Black Lives Matter movement and forcing a new reckoning on brutality police and wider systemic racism.
The Minnesota court said Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill was wrong last year when he rejected a motion by the prosecution to reinstate the third-degree murder charge against Chauvin.
Cahill should have followed the precedent set by the appeals court when it stated the former Minneapolis officer Mohamed Noor’s third-degree murder conviction in the 2017 shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, the court said. The Australian woman called 911 to report her testimony of a possible sexual assault. Noor is appealing to the state supreme court.
It was unclear on Saturday whether Friday’s decision would delay Chauvin’s trial. He is accused of wrongful death and wrongful death. Chauvin has the option of appealing the decision to the state supreme court, which would force Cahill to postpone the trial, said Ted Sampsell-Jones of Mitchell Hamline law school in St Paul.
But if Chauvin does not appeal, added the professor, “then Judge Cahill will almost certainly reinstate the third degree charge” and the jury selection can still begin on Monday, with new decisions on the extra charge before the due arguments are opened until 29 March.
A reinstated third-degree homicide count would increase the chances of a homicide conviction. Floyd’s family originally asked for a first-degree murder charge and there is likely to be outrage if Chauvin is not convicted.
Legal experts said reinstating the third-degree murder in the case could be a strategic move by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, leading the charge, to give jurors more chances of conviction, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The indictment can be seen by the jurors as a middle ground. It would also allow the Public Prosecutor’s Office to present several theories based on different elements that must be met in order to condemn the respective charges. It can also serve as a bargaining chip in confession negotiations, Richard Frase, of the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, told the Minneapolis newspaper.
Cahill can order an audience this weekend or make an announcement Monday morning.
Donald Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, last year rejected a deal for Chauvin to plead guilty to third-degree murder, partly because he feared he would be considered too mild, the New York Times reported last month. The newspaper added that Chauvin wanted to be spared federal civil rights charges after his murder trial.
Minneapolis and its “twin city”, São Paulo, prepared for the trial by erecting barricades, fences and barbed wire. The Minnesota National Guard has been put on alert, although officials insist that peaceful protests will be allowed.