MINNEAPOLIS — Monday could be the last day needed to find the necessary number of jurors the judge wants for the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd late last spring.
Friday's jury selection ended with 13 chosen, and Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said he'd like to find two more for the panel.
Cahill said he wants to have at least 15 jurors ready to go for the start of the trial in earnest on March 29. Fourteen jurors, two of them alternates, will hear the case. A 15th is desired should one drop out before the start.
Court reconvened shortly after 9 a.m. Central time, and defense attorney Eric Nelson used one of his discretionary strikes to excuse the morning's first potential juror.
The woman, a nursing assistant who is white, was firm in her pledge to judge the case only on the evidence presented, saying, "I can look at it from both sides; look at the facts and go from there."
She revealed that she marched in a protest about a week after Floyd's death and carried a sign. She also said she saw the widely watched bystander video of Floyd's arrest and gave this impression in the juror questionnaire she filed out months back: "It was not his time to die, and the incident should not have gone as far as it did."
The prosecution followed and used one of its strikes to dismiss the day's second jury candidate, a father whose passion for competitive fishing made for congenial small talk with the attorneys.
The man, who is white, said he has seen very little news coverage about Floyd's death or the civil unrest that followed, and couldn't recall ever seeing the viral video. With that, he said he could be fair-minded juror. "Everything is based on how it's presented … within the trial," he said.
The man, who services and repairs pumps for a "good sized" company in the Twin Cities, characterized his view of Chauvin as "neutral" on his questionnaire. Not so much for the Black Lives Matter movement, writing, "I do not think the riots helped."
Asked whether he still associates the riots with the movement, he said, "I would have to say I possibly do."
The prosecution has used seven of its 10 strikes, while the defense has used 15 of 18.
The day's third prospective juror told the court that "my English is not perfect. I might not understand all the words." Cahill quizzed her a bit further in the area and soon excused her.
Early on in court Friday, Cahill rejected defense motions to have the trial delayed or moved in the wake of the well-publicized announcement this month of a record $27 million settlement between the city of Minneapolis and Floyd's family. News of the payout led to the dismissal of two seated jurors who said it impacted their viewpoints on Chauvin's role in Floyd's death on May 25 at a south Minneapolis intersection.
Later Friday morning, a 13th juror was chosen. She worked in customer service and said she is an animal lover, "especially dogs."
The woman said she saw the oft-mentioned bystander video of Floyd's arrest and wrote in her juror questionnaire months ago, "This restraint was ultimately responsible for Mr. Floyd's demise." That said, she pledged under defense scrutiny Friday that she could presume Chauvin innocent as the law requires her to do.
Chauvin, who is white, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd, who was Black.
Floyd's death sparked a racial reckoning across the world, and this trial is the state's first of a white officer charged with killing a Black civilian on the job.
Through Friday, there are six people of color and seven white people among the 13 jurors chosen.
Those chosen are: a multi-race woman in her 20s, a multi-race woman in her 40s, two Black men in their 30s, a Black man in his 40s, a Black woman in her 60s, four white women in their 50s, a white woman in her 40s, a white man in his 30s and a white man in his 20s. Jurors will be sequestered during deliberations.
The other defendants in the case — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — are scheduled to be tried in August on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
