Updated 11 a.m.
A Hennepin County judge hearing arguments Friday in the case of four former police officers charged in the death of George Floyd said he’s leaning toward a jury anonymous to the public that may be sequestered during a trial.
Judge Peter Cahill heard arguments on a number of motions during the morning hearing but hasn’t yet made any rulings.
Attorneys representing the men will argue against a joint trial and request that the trial be moved outside the county. All four defendants have also asked for charges to be dismissed.
Deliberations are expected to resume shortly following a break.
Floyd died on May 25 after former officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes. Chauvin faces murder and manslaughter charges.
Former officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Keung and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
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Prosecutors want four tried together
Prosecutors have proposed trying all four officers together. They argue in a court filing that the charges are similar, eyewitnesses and family members would be traumatized from multiple trials, and that the defenses needed by defendants are not antagonistic. That would apply in cases where the defendants are forced to blame one another and the jury is forced to decide between them.
Attorneys for the defendants argued that their defenses could be antagonistic, because Lane, Keung and Thao could argue that Chauvin committed a crime on his own. Prosecutors responded in another filing that the officers worked in close concert at the scene.
St. Paul attorney Paul Applebaum, who isn’t involved in the cases, said it’s going to be tough for the defense attorneys to get the cases separated, partly because it would be difficult for Chauvin to blame the other officers for the charges of murder and manslaughter against him, but also because of the burden of holding four separate trials.
“They’re going to think, ‘I can’t sit through four of these things, and I can’t drag witnesses back four times, and I can’t drag toxicologists back four times,” Applebaum said. “It’s just going to be too unwieldy for the court to do that.”
Defense attorneys have also asked for a change of venue, citing excessive amount of pretrial publicity in the Twin Cities:
“[P]rotests over George Floyd’s death, riots and looting were televised internationally, and near nonstop on local media, for several days such that the Twin Cities jury pools have surely been tainted and a fair trial cannot be had in the Twin Cities area,” Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson wrote in a motion to change the trial venue.
Eric Nelson, the attorney representing former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, leaves the Hennepin County Courthouse after a motion hearing on Tuesday, July 21, 2020.
Evan Frost | MPR News
Applebaum said he believes defense attorneys may have a stronger case for moving the trial, but that it would be challenging to find somewhere else in the state where a similar level of publicity wasn’t present.
Defense attorneys for the officers have also filed motions asking for charges to be dismissed. Cahill has noted that motions to dismiss will be decided after briefs are filed and not argued at Friday’s hearing. Prosecutors have not yet filed a response to Chauvin’s motion to dismiss the charges.
‘Whole world saw’
Before the Friday hearing began, protesters staged a “die-in” demonstration this in front of the Family Justice Center, where the hearing is being held.
Jae Yates of the group Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice 4 Jamar said the defense’s request for the change of venue is to seek a whiter, more conservative jury who will side with the former cops.
"But the whole world saw what they did to Mr. Floyd, and the whole world is outraged,” Yates said. “We demand that these trials stay here, where they have to face the wrath of the communities they have terrorized."
Elizer Darris of the ACLU of Minnesota said the community demands justice. “Is a panel of white jurors better positioned than those of us, who live right here? Are they better positioned to judge this than us?” Darris asked, to a chorus of “Hell no!”
The parties will also argue over evidence the defense has requested from the state.
Defense attorneys for the officers asked whether Floyd was a confidential informant or if he had gang affiliations. The prosecution's response in a filing was "the victim is not on trial here."
The court will also consider how to safely hold a high-profile criminal case during a pandemic. A coalition of media organizations, including MPR News, has pushed for more access to hearing and evidence.
Defense attorneys have supported efforts to allow the proceedings to be streamed, although the office of Attorney General Keith Ellison has expressed concern about the impact that audio and visual coverage of the hearings could have on witnesses and how lawyers present evidence.
Friday’s hearing is set in the Family Justice Center in downtown Minneapolis, rather than the Hennepin County Government Center. Space in the courtroom is limited to a small pool of journalists from local and national organizations, although there’s also a media overflow room in the building and an overflow room for the public at the government center.
George Floyd’s family is expected to give a statement after Friday’s hearing.
The trial is scheduled to start in March.
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