Jury selection will continue on Tuesday at the murder trail for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd.
As Fox 26 reports, on Monday two additional jurors were selected, for a total of nine seated. Chauvin’s defense attorney Eric Nelson has asked Judge Peter Cahill to consider postponing the murder trial, over concerns about the impact of a $27 million settlement awarded to Floyd’s family.
“It’s amazing to me, they had a press conference on Friday, where the mayor of Minneapolis is on stage with city council, and they’re using very, what I would say, very well-designed terminology. ‘The unanimous decision of the city council,’ for example. It just goes straight to the heart of the dangers of pretrial publicity in this case,” Nelson said in court on Monday, according to CNN.
“The fact that this came in the exact middle of jury selection — it’s perplexing to me, your honor, whose idea it was to release this information when it was released.”
According to CNN, Judge Cahill said he would consider a request to postpone the trial and would question previously selected jurors about the settlement, apparently to determine if the settlement news affects the jurors’ ability to remain impartial.
Watch the court proceedings like from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
Read more on this case on CrimeOnline.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Listen to the latest episode:
[Featured image: Derek Chauvin/Hennepin County jail; George Floyd; Facebook]
