Thread by @LouRaguse

Feels like Deja Vu this morning in the Derek Chauvin case, the officer charged with killing George Floyd. Court is scheduled to resume at 8a central with jury selection to start at 9. Here is my thread for 3/9/21 and an article here as a primer. kare11.com/article/news/l…

Last night, Chauvin's attorney Eric Nelson filed a petition for further review to the MN Supreme Court as he said he would. He also filed an opposition to the state's motion for writ of prohibition to the MN Court of Appeals.

What does that mean? We are waiting to hear back from CoA whether they will stop the trial completely while we wait to hear from MN SupCo. The MN SupCo can either agree to take the case or reject it. If they reject it -- the CoA issue becomes irrelevant.

But if we hear from neither, Judge Peter Cahill has made it clear he plans to go ahead with jury selection today.

Court is in session. They are going over pretrial motions just like yesterday afternoon. Establishing ground rules for trial and compromising about scope of questioning for certain witnesses. No word on appeals or jury selection yet. Obviously a lot was discussed off the record

One person from the prosecution team is appearing over Zoom which I guess officially makes today's hearing a "hybrid model."

Couple rulings so far:

The off-duty MPD firefighter who was present and can be heard on the video as George Floyd dies can go somewhat into her experience and what she observed.. but cannot testify that she believes she could have saved him.

And concerning the fact Chauvin was fired... kind of an interesting argument about how much of that fact can be used. Prosecutors will call Chief Medaria Arradondo as a witness but don't want Nelson to use any testimony regarding decision making process.

Judge Cahill says prosecution can bring up dates of employment but rules reasoning for firing and decision making process won't be allowed.

NO updates from Court of Appeals ... Judge Cahill is ready for jury selection. Here we go. 9am they will start. "full group" of potential jurors who are here this morning will be in courtroom at first (they won't be shown on camera)

When Judge Cahill asked if there is any update from the Court of Appeals, Prosecutor Matthew Frank literally checked his phone to see if they have contacted him. That's how moment-by-moment this is.

In the course of the motions discussion, there was a revelation that the city of Minneapolis has made a "Rule 68" offer which I believe means they offered a settlement to the family of George Floyd. No other details about it revealed.

The first jury panel is in the courtroom. Jury selection is beginning. As I tweet details here, I am not going to include anything that I believe could lead to people figuring out identities.

Juror #1 is a mom who says that she has trouble with English. She's seen coverage of the death of George Floyd on the news, knows that he said he can't breathe. The woman thought "that's not fair" that the officer would not remove his knee.

Nelson now asking the critical questions that usually determine whether a juror gets struck or not -- "Would you be willing to reexamine your opinion if you see other evidence that could change your mind? Juror#1: Yes."

Back to the George Floyd civil case at the moment -- I've confirmed through sources that Minneapolis has made a settlement offer to Floyd's family. They have not yet accepted it. Reaching out to attorneys for more info.

Deleted a couple tweets that were inaccurate concerning how juror #1 was dismissed. Chauvin's attorney used one of his 15 peremptory challenges to strike her after they failed to convince Judge Cahill to dismiss her for cause because of language issues.

The second potential juror is a Minneapolis man with a science background with some knowledge of the case. He talked about visiting the area of 38th and Chicago where George Floyd died.

Juror #2 when questioned about his opinions on "Black Lives Matter" said he supports the movement and the message but not the "organization."

"I support the message that every life should matter equally. I don't think the organization necessarily stands for that."

Nelson is finished questioning this potential juror and now prosecutors are doing so. Steve Schleicher is doing the questioning for the state.

Juror #2 will be on this jury. HE is the first person to be seated. Neither side tried to challenge.

Update on one of the appeal issues. The State Supreme Court is asking the state to reply to Nelson's petition for review by 5pm today.

The pool reporter who is in the courtroom says Juror #2, who has been added to this case, is a white man in his 20s or 30s.

Yesterday afternoon Judge Cahill said they'd bring in 7 jurors in the morning and 7 in the afternoon. This morning when he did initial introductions to the panel, there were six people there -- 3 women and 3 men.

After the morning break, court has resumed with Juror #3, a woman, being questioned.

Juror #3 is excused by Judge Cahill for cause.

Now Juror #4 is coming in.

They will end for the morning at 12:30p central.

Juror #3 was excused for cause because of strong opinions about the case.

Juror #4, a Hispanic man who moved here from Southern California, is excused after Chauvin's attorney Nelson uses one of his peremptory strikes. He now has 13 strikes left and the prosecution has 9.

The prosecution tried to use a Batson Challenge -- which is used to prevent attorneys from dismissing a potential juror based solely on race. Prosecution says Juror 4 who is Hispanic, answered similarly to Juror 2 who is white.

Nelson says there are differences between the two. Juror two had not watched video, was analytical. Juror 4 has more preconceived notions of case.

Judge Cahill says there are difference and race-neutral reasoning is valid.

Cahill adds that the martial arts background of Juror 4 would have been problematic when it came to the knee to neck evidence. And Juror 4 would put the burden on defense to prove innocence based on his opinions on case.

As you are adding new people to follow during this trial, you must add @MaryMoriarty, former Chief Public Defender in Hennepin County. She is breaking down a lot of these legal issues and making them easy to understand as she live tweets.

https://twitter.com/MaryMoriarty/status/1369349269564645383?s=20

Juror #5 now being questioned by Eric Nelson. This potential juror has expressed more fear about being on this jury than any of the prior people questioned. On his questionnaire, said he has friends who moved out of downtown condos and he and wife don't go downtown after unrest

Juror #5 says has watched video of George Floyd's death several times. Has strong opinion - but says would be able to judge case on facts. Has negative views of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Juror #5 says has very favorable views of "Blue Lives Matter."

Prosecutors indicate they will have a long line of questioning for this juror. Based on what we've heard so far, prosecution won't want this juror seated but we will see what they draw out.

We are now breaking for lunch until 130pm.

This potential juror being questioned is #8 -- because numbers 5,6,7 were dismissed yesterday afternoon among a group of 16 based solely on their questionnaire answers. When we resume I will properly refer to him as #8 instead of #5. Sorry for the confusion!

The state has begun questioning potential juror #8 -- at first focusing on the man's safety fears if he is seated as a juror. I'm sure the state hopes to lead to a "for cause" dismissal rather than having to burn a peremptory challenge.

The state uses its first Peremptory Strike on Juror #8.

They still have 8 strikes remaining.
Defense has 13.

We are onto Juror #9.

Still only one juror has been seated for this case (Juror #2 as his "name" is for this trial)

Juror #9 is a woman who grew up in Northern Minnesota. She has a relative who is a police officer, which is the focus of the prosecution's questioning of her.

Juror #9 is being seated on the jury. She is the second person to be seated.

Six people have been questioned today so far... as they begin to talk to the next panel of potential jurors.
2 jurors seated for trial
Defense used 2 strikes (13 remain)
Prosecution used 1 (8 remain)

Now potential juror #10 is beginning his questioning. He says he would rather not be on the jury. Believes if his name is eventually released he could "become a potential target for some organizations"

Juror #10 is excused because he works in accounting, tax season is coming up, and Judge Cahill said the last juror he had who was working during a busy season fell asleep during the trial.

Juror #11 is being questioned, 19-year-old student, doesn't want to be part of a trial the whole word will be watching, is uncomfortable with the process.

Nelson is now questioning him. #11 says he is a deep thinker, philosophical. Sounds very anxious.

Juror 11: "I feel like this whole process is just going to snowball. Get bigger and bigger as the days go by. And i don't know if i want to deal with that, the media attention, people outside the courthouse, guards and stuff.. it's a lot for me to take in."

So hard to listen to this young man. Feel for him.

They are taking the mid-afternoon break now. He's not done yet.

Discussing with other reporters here... I believe this juror is actually "Juror 17" as Juror 11 was one of those struck yesterday (Jurors 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 22, 24, 25, 32, 35, 45, 47, 50 all struck yesterday)

Sorry for the confusion a second time!

The pool reporter in the courtroom says Juror #2, who was seated in the jury for the trial, is a person of color, appears biracial.

The young man currently being questioned is possibly biracial, possibly African-American.

I am preparing for our newscasts so not tweeting as frequently -- but a third juror, a man, has been seated for the trial. No more jurors to be questioned until tomorrow

The racial makeup of this jury is very important to a lot of people.
Three jurors were seated today. Their "names" are their juror numbers.
Juror #2 Male, Caucasian, 20s or 30s
Juror #9 Female, 20/30s, a person of color
Juror #19 Male, Caucasian, 30s