MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A prospective juror who once lived in the neighborhood where George Floyd was arrested told the lawyer for a former officer charged in Floyd’s death that he had a personal reason to serve on the jury.
“Because as a black man I see a lot of black people being killed and no one being held accountable for it, and you wonder why or what the decisions were,” jury member 76 questioned during the jury’s selection in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.. “So, with this, I might be in the room to know why.”
But the man will not be in the room. Although he said he felt he could weigh the evidence fairly, he was struck by the defense. It was an illustration of how difficult it can be for people who say they have personal experience with the misconduct of the police to administer it to juries that hold them accountable.
“We have a black man who was probably in the best position to judge the case,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer and head of a community activism organization called the Wayfinder Foundation.
The man said he experiences racism on a daily basis, and he strongly agrees that the police are more likely to react with black people than with white people. Levy Armstrong called the jury’s exclusion a ‘big slap in the face’ that ‘only underscores why people believe there is systematic racism at work within these legal processes.’
The selection of juries in Chauvin’s case is nearing completion, with 12 of 14 required jurors selected by Thursday. So far, the racial composition of the jury has been evenly distributed; six of the jurors are white, four are black and two are multiracial, according to the court.
Floyd was pronounced dead last May after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against the black man’s neck for about nine minutes while lying on the ground and handcuffed. Floyd pleaded for air several times and eventually fell silent.
But local activists like Levy Armstrong say police brutality was rampant long before Floyd’s death.
Juror 76 – they are only mentioned by number in court to protect anonymity – said Minneapolis police will “drive through the neighborhood with” Another One Bites the Dust “after a local person is shot or arrested .
Levy Armstrong said such a context would be essential for the group of 12 people who would decide Chauvin’s fate. Local activists noted that several select jurors have relationships with police officers, and asked them: Why can’t a black man who has had negative experiences with the police do so in a jury?
Nelson used one of his perceptual strikes to dismiss the man, after he tried and failed to get him beaten “for the sake of the case”, citing his negative opinion of the Minneapolis police and his statements that Floyd was “killed”.
Prosecutors argued against stopping the case, saying the man merely reflected on the reality of his experience, pointing out that he had said he could put his personal feelings aside.
Nelson’s mandatory strike, which has not been disputed, needs no explanation. Lawyers cannot strike a juror on the basis of race.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill said he did not think a challenge would have worked in this case, citing the man’s negative statements about the Minneapolis police station.
But he noted that the man’s statement also shows that he can be fair.
“My derivation from what he said is, ‘I can put it aside, and if he’s not guilty, I can come to the verdict, because I feel comfortable telling people why it happened,'” he said. Cahill said, adding that “would put him right in the middle as far as it is fair and impartial.”
Alan Turkheimer, a jury consultant in Chicago, said he was not surprised that the defense was trying to please someone who was experiencing police brutality from a jury.
“Sometimes people just can’t be fair, even if they don’t know it,” he said. “It’s so ingrained. It’s so hard to shake something like that. ”
He added that interrogation – and ultimately conspicuous – would give prospective jurors a “built-in advantage for police officers based on their experiences.”
Many people this week during racial justice drew their attention to systemic racism within the justice system and the choice of juries, said Jaylani Hussein, a local activist and executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. .
“It’s a horrible, racist thought process: we need to stop people who could get angry – you know the angry black man or the angry black woman – from the jury because they will not take it seriously,” he said.
For the jury member, the idea of being part of shaping Chauvin’s verdict was something he tackled as a weighty case. He said he avoided watching in-depth news coverage on Floyd’s death, and even watched the topic with his wife.
“I do not have an opinion on Mr. “Chauvin did not form because I did not know him,” said the juror. “It’s sad. It’s another black man being killed by police. That’s all I could say.”
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Groves reports from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
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Find AP’s full coverage of George Floyd’s death at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd