A lawyer for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin filed a motion on Tuesday to request a new trial for his client.
Eric Nelson argued in the document to the Hennepin County District Court that it “abused its discretion” on a number of matters, depriving Chauvin of a “fair trial.” Last month, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in connection with the May 2020 death of George Floyd.
Chauvin’s legal team took issue with the court’s denial of their request to have a change of venue, its decision to not sequester the jury, and the fact that it reportedly “failed to accurately reflect the law” when it instructed the jury on the meanings of “second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and authorized use of force.”
CHAUVIN JUROR DEFENDS PICTURE IN BLACK LIVES MATTER SHIRT, RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT TRIAL
Adding to questions about the trial’s legitimacy, a photo has surfaced of one of the jurors wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt while attending a protest in Washington, D.C. The juror, Brandon Mitchell, acknowledged attending the Aug. 28 march in a Monday conversation with multiple news outlets.
The shirt says the words “GET YOUR KNEE OFF OUR NECKS” and “BLM,” along with a photo of Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’d never been to D.C.,” Mitchell said. “The opportunity to go to D.C., the opportunity to be around thousands and thousands of black people, I just thought it was a good opportunity to be a part of something.”
Mitchell also said that he answered “no” to these two questions used to screen potential members of the jury:
“Did you, or someone close to you, participate in any of the demonstrations or marches against police brutality that took place in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death?”
“Other than what you have already described above, have you, or anyone close to you, participated in protests about police use of force or police brutality?”
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Mitchell explained that the protest was “100% not” about Floyd.
“It was directly related to MLK’s March on Washington from the ’60s … The date of the March on Washington is the date … It was literally called the anniversary of the March on Washington.”
