Jury selection has been underway in Chauvin's criminal trial for more than a week, and half the panel had been seated by Friday evening, when news came down that Minneapolis had agreed to pay the Floyd family $27 million to end federal civil claims accusing the city of unconstitutional policing practices that ultimately led to Floyd's killing.
On Wednesday, the seven people who were empaneled during the first week of jury selection were called back into the courtroom via Zoom. Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill asked each of them if they'd caught wind of "extensive media coverage" about a development in the civil lawsuit.
Three jurors said they'd avoided media as instructed and hadn't heard of the deal. Two more said they'd heard about it, but insisted it would have no bearing on their presumption of Chauvin's innocence. But two said they could no longer remain impartial.
One of them, a delivery driver who'd been empaneled Thursday, noted that during his first interview before the court, he has been asked about his initial impressions of Chauvin.
"Clearly the city of Minneapolis has strong opinions as well," he said on Wednesday. "This just confirms my opinions that I already had. … I think it will be hard to be impartial."
The judge also excused a sales manager who was willing to serve on the jury even though he was supposed to get married on May 1, when deliberations would likely be underway. He said the $27 million figure "sent the message that the city of Minneapolis felt something was wrong, and they wanted to make it right."
"That sticker price shocked me and kind of swayed me a little bit," he told the judge.
Two additional jurors had been empaneled on Monday and another two were added on Wednesday afternoon. They were asked during voir dire about their knowledge of the civil settlement before being seated. The removal of the two men from the jury on Wednesday left the number of seated jurors at nine.
"We're back where we started this morning," Judge Cahill said at the end of jury selection on Wednesday, "but that's better than being behind."
One of the men struck for cause Wednesday self-identified as Hispanic, and the other identified as white, according to a comment made by Judge Cahill about the makeup of the jury as of Thursday.
The demographic information of the nine jurors seated to date has not been officially confirmed by the court, but according to pool reporters present in the courtroom, the jury now consists of two white men, one multiracial woman, three Black men and three white women.
Race has infused much of jury selection, with potential jurors being asked their opinions about the Black Lives Matter movement and the blue lives matter slogan, as well as racism in the criminal justice system.
That's because images of Floyd, a Black man, gasping for breath under the knee of a white police officer rekindled a nationwide racial justice movement last summer. A cellphone video taken by a bystander showed Chauvin pinning Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, as his victim — who was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill — begged him to stop, said he couldn't breathe and lost consciousness. The video went viral and has been viewed by millions.
Though Chauvin and Floyd were household names even before last week's settlement, on Monday, Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson of Halberg Criminal Defense, lamented the civil settlement as "a highly prejudicial press release that has very suspicious timing to say the least, and has an incredible propensity to taint the jury pool."
During a hearing on Monday, Nelson asked for a slew of remedies. His request to sequester the jurors was immediately denied. A request for more peremptory challenges for the defense was initially denied on Monday, but on Wednesday afternoon Judge Cahill gave three more strikes to the defense, and one more to the prosecution. That means they have six and five remaining, respectively.
Judge Cahill said he will decide on Friday whether to grant the defense's requests to delay the trial or move it out of Minneapolis.
--Editing by Bruce Goldman.
Updated: This story has been updated to include information about an additional juror who was seated on Wednesday and the additional peremptory challenges.
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