The four now-former police officers involved in the death of George Floyd appeared in court on Monday, where a judge ruled that their trial will take place in March 2021.
The judge did not reveal whether all four officers will participate in the same trial or if they will be tried separately. Derek Chauvin, 44, has been charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter after he was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for several minutes during an arrest last month.
Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane — the three other officers involved in the arrest — were all charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
Kueng and Lane have both been released from jail after posting their $750,000 bail. Thao has not posted his bail, which was set at $1 million without conditions or $750,000 with conditions. Chauvin is also still behind bars as he has not posted his $1.25 million bail.
The four officers, who were all fired by the Minneapolis Police Department after the video of Floyd’s death went viral, agreed to the trial taking place in March because of the massive discovery process, which yielded 8,000 pages of evidence on Chauvin.
Kueng and Lane agreed to have a pre-trial hearing take place on Sept. 11, 2020. An attorney for Thao requested that the trial be moved outside of Minnesota over concerns that the jury pool has been tainted by comments made by President Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz about Floyd’s death.
The incident triggered nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
