Derek Chauvin Trial: Watch It For Yourself

13 thoughts on “Derek Chauvin Trial: Watch It For Yourself”

1. NPR has an article on the makeup of the jury.

   The jury chosen for the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, is notable because it is significantly less white than Minneapolis itself.

   Among the 12 jurors and three alternates selected for the panel are three Black men, one Black woman and two jurors who identify as multiracial. If none of the three alternates — all of them white — is needed in the deliberation room, 50% of the panel that will vote on Chauvin’s fate will be Black or multiracial.

   If I were going to be as cynical as I possibly could, my expectation would be that the play is to go for a big high-profile GUILTY! for the first trial, then go for an acquittal on the appeal.Report

   1. The trick will be, on what grounds to appeal? Complaints about Jury makeup will probably fall on deaf ears.Report

      1. They’ll appeal the sentencing, I imagine.Report

2. Legal Insurrection has a Day-7 Wrap Up and their take is that the prosecution had a bad day.

   I am not a lawyer.
   But.

   This part right here has me saying “yeah… the prosecution had a bad day”:

   Even worse, not only did the cross-examination of MacKenzie by the defense also go badly for the prosecution, it went so badly that Nelson informed the court that he intended to re-call MacKenzie as a defense witness when he presented his case in chief.

   (Emphasis in original.)Report

   1. Gotta wonder if the prosecutor is taking one for the team…Report

      1. You can’t rule it out:

         The prosecution's expert in the Derek Chauvin/George Floyd trial just agreed that some things that are "awful" might still be "lawful." That's the essence of the defense but the answer was elicited — not on purpose — by the prosecutor.

         — Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) April 7, 2021

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         1. But maybe all that doesn’t matter:

            The various jurors will have questions and doubts but this is the sort of thing a jury comes back to again and again. https://t.co/eH04UhZtI6

            — Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) April 8, 2021

            Report

            1. I mean…yeah the defense is saying “but he had fentanyl, he admitted he was high, he said that right in front of the police” and it seems to me like the prosecution response is “that makes it even more an act of knowing and intentional deadly assault, that they took someone in medical distress and put him in a position of further distress instead of rendering medical assistance”.Report

               1. I mean, “he was gonna die anyway” is not a defense against a murder charge, because technically it’s true of everybody…Report

                  1. Exactly. And when the defense expert takes the stand, he will have to answer a question more or less like the following: “Dr. X, is it your testimony that George Floyd would have died if he had been left lying on the ground in cuffs for nine minutes without Derek Chauvin’s knee on his neck?” If he says “No,” that’s game, set, and match. If he says “Yes,” he won’t be believed. Anything else is a wash.Report

   2. Legal Insurrection is the Judge Judy of the legal webosphere.Report

      1. They did a better job on the Oberlin stuff than anybody else.

         Now maybe there’s a list of names that I should be reading on the trial in addition to these guys and I’d love to see that list.

         But they built up enough good will with me for their Oberlin coverage to see their stuff as worth reading before dismissing it out of hand.Report

3. The first time the NYT sent this tweet out, they spelled it “trail”.

   It's unclear if Derek Chauvin will testify in his own defense. Taking the stand in his trial on charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter could put jurors off or open Chauvin up to damaging cross-examination. https://t.co/eSyHvj7GSG

   — The New York Times (@nytimes) April 13, 2021

   Report

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