George Floyd Legal Settlement Tainting Jury Pool For Derek Chauvin Criminal Trial

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The left has an uncanny ability to destroy almost anything it touches. Now, they may have just cost themselves the show-trial they so desperately wanted for Derek Chauvin.

What makes it a show trial rather than an actual trial is very closely related to the reason they may have just ruined their chances of finally seeing it begin, so we will begin with that before explaining how we have come to call it a show-trial.

By now you have almost certainly heard that the process of jury selection for the trial of the police officer in the encounter during George Floyd’s final moments is well underway.

What made it more complicated than most was that the video filmed had global notoriety and Floyd’s death became the flashpoint behind a summer of violence, rioting, and looting.

You may also have heard about the $27M settlement deal between the city and Floyd’s family (and others). In their infinite wisdom, the parties involved decided to settle (and announce the details of that settlement) during the jury selection process.

It might have been obvious to many what could go wrong here. Even the prosecution acknowledges the significance of this development.

The Minneapolis judge presiding over Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd is considering delaying the trial, after a $27 million settlement in a civil case was awarded to the Floyd family on Friday.

Judge Peter Cahill agreed with Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, that the timing of the payout was a complicating factor.

‘You would agree it’s unfortunate, right?’ Cahill asked the prosecution, led by Steve Schleicher.

‘It’s certainly not my preference, your honor,’ Schleicher replied, adding that it wasn’t clear to him whether news of the settlement ‘cuts’ in favor of the prosecution or the defense.

‘The problem is, it cuts,’ Cahill said. —DailyMail

For anyone not quite seeing the relationship between the two stories, this should help clarify the connection:

Mary Moriarty, former chief public defender of Hennepin County, where the trial is being held, said the settlement announcement ‘was incredibly bad timing and extremely damaging to the defense and maybe the state.’

Experts agreed that it could influence jurors to decide that Chauvin was not guilty, because the family had already received financial ‘justice’. Alternatively, it could encourage jurors to find Chauvin guilty, because the settlement was so large it seemed like the city had already decided.

Nelson accused Minneapolis city officials and the mayor of trying to sabotage his client’s right to fair trial.

Nelson said he was ‘gravely concerned’ by the announced settlement from Friday, calling it ‘incredibly prejudicial’ to his client. —DailyMail

This brings us to the reason we are concerned it might be a show trial.

There is a reason we have a trial of this sort for ANYONE. A murder conviction requires proof of the direct CAUSAL relationship between the actions of the accused and the death of the person in question. In this case, if Chauvin is convicted, much of the city will celebrate, and if he is not? The city will burn.

Much of the public has presumed his guilt, without bothering to wait for a trial. If the results don’t match their expectations, there will be hell to pay.

What makes it a show trial is the presumption of guilt before the first piece of evidence has been presented.

It isn’t enough in a court of law to say that someone did a bad thing.

That bad thing in question MUST be connected to what killed him.

No matter how ugly that viral video was, or how many elected officials knelt in a sign of solidarity for those 8 minutes or so, it is up to a judge and jury to ascertain whether the evidence presented against the accused lines up with the charges presented against him… even here.

The exculpatory evidence needs to be entered into the record as well. Like the seldom-mentioned autopsy report that lacks certain damning details that a slam-dunk murder conviction would require.

I posted the autopsy on instagram and they added a disclaimer about COVID19 pic.twitter.com/ncUHAA9Sq1

— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) March 10, 2021

It really doesn’t matter whether you think he’s a scapegoat or a rat bastard, he deserves his day in court, exactly the same way you would deserve yours if you got caught up in a bad situation… and for the same reason.

He deserves to be either convicted or acquitted in accordance to what actually happened, not by how the public perceives what has happened.

It was for that principle — despite his loathing of the English — that John Adams stood as the defense lawyer for the redcoats accused in the Boston Massacre.

Let us hope some jurors with similar character and commitment to objective justice, rather than the bastardized ‘racial justice’ to John Adams are available to decide this case. . . for all of our sakes.

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