MINNEAPOLIS — Attorneys on both sides of the Derek Chauvin murder trial on Monday will begin making their case before jurors who will decide whether the fired Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd 10 months ago.
An opening statement from prosecutor Jerry Blackwell began shortly before 9:40 a.m. in front of a global livestream audience in downtown Minneapolis in the heavily guarded Hennepin County Government Center. Defense attorney Eric Nelson will follow with his opening statement later in the morning.
Blackwell began by explaining how Minneapolis officers take an oath to respect the sanctity of life, to not use excessive force and to accept the public trust that comes with the badge they wear.
"You will learn that on May 25, 2020, Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of Mr. George Floyd. That he put his knee upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him until the very breath, no ladies and gentlemen, until the very life was squeezed out of him."
Floyd was unarmed and not threatening anyone, Blackwell said. He was handcuffed and "completely in the control of the police," he said.
With photos from the well-known video from a bystander, Blackwell walked through the minutes that Floyd was pinned under Chauvin's knee at E. 38th Street and S. Chicago Avenue.
Blackwell showed an image of the bystanders who pleaded for officers to intervene, calling them a "veritable bouquet of humanity."
"None of them knew who George Floyd was, they didn't know his history, they didn't' know anything about him," Blackwell said. "They knew they came upon an individual who was caused serious distress by Mr. Chauvin and it alarmed them."
Blackwell then soon turned to the video itself and showed it in full to the jurors, others in the courtroom and millions watching on the livestream.
"I can't breathe," Floyd said repeatedly, a phrase that quickly became a rallying cry for activists around the world. As the world saw within hours of Floyd's death, the cellphone video captured bystanders' spirited objections while Chauvin remained kneeling.
Ultimately, Blackwell said, the state will prove that Chauvin's conduct was a "substantial cause" of Floyd's death.
"This was an assault that contributed to taking his life," and Chauvin acted "without regard for Mr. Floyd's life."
Fifteen jurors were chosen over 11 days earlier in the month, a process refereed by District Judge Peter Cahill that proved challenging in the midst of outside publicity such as a bystander's video of Floyd's arrest on May 25 that was watched at least in part many millions of times on social media and in news reports.
Then came the announcement by city leaders during jury selection that they had agreed to settle a lawsuit with the Floyd family for $27 million. Several jury candidates said the payout made it difficult for them to grant Chauvin his constitutional right to be presumed innocent.
The final juror chosen was dismissed before Monday's proceedings began, leaving 14 to be sworn in about 9:25 a.m. The COVID-19 pandemic's need for physical spacing in the courtroom didn't allow for additional alternates.
Opening statements, as defined by state court rules, are just that: statements that "only state the facts proposed to be proven."
After up to four weeks of evidence and closing arguments — when attorneys can use their best persuasive skills based solely on what was presented at trial — two more jurors will be excused and the remaining 12 will go into sequestration until reaching unanimous verdicts on each count.
The 45-year-old Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with Floyd's death, which not only ignited sometimes violent protests and rioting in Minneapolis, St. Paul and elsewhere, but reignited the nation's debate over policing and race relations.
The 14 remaining jurors are diverse beyond the population they were chosen from and cover many decades in age.
Six of the jurors are people of color and eight are white. Nine are women, and five are men. Chauvin is white. Floyd, 46, was Black.
The jurors are: a multirace woman in her 20s, a multirace 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, one white man in his 20s, and a white woman in her 20s.
Three other fired Minneapolis police officers — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — are expected to stand trial together in August on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
