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The move comes a week after the city agreed to pay Floyd’s estate $ 27 million – an announcement defense attorneys claimed to have harmed their client amid jury selection.
Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously last week to settle a lawsuit with the Floyd family.
The public announcement of the settlement amid jury selection infuriated Chauvin’s defense, which argued it harmed jurors against their client. Lawyer Eric Nelson has asked Judge Peter Cahill to move and delay the trial in light of the publicity.
“The fact that this happened exactly in the middle of the jury selection – it’s puzzling to me, Your Honor, whose idea was to release this information when it was released,” Nelson said.
Cahill also decided Friday to admit limited evidence of a meeting between Floyd and the police on May 6, 2019.
Floyd’s arrest in 2019 came just over a year before Chauvin knelt at Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes as Floyd told Chauvin and three other officers he couldn’t. breathe.
“The bottom line here is that we have medical evidence as to what happens when Mr. Floyd is faced with virtually the same situation,” the judge said.
The defense demand for a trial delay came as week two of jury selection wrapped up in the trial of Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing Floyd on May 25, 2020. The latest ones Floyd’s moments, recorded on video, have led to widespread protests against police brutality and racism under the Black Lives Matter banner as well as incidents of unrest and looting.
The defense had previously requested that the trial be moved out of Minneapolis, but Cahill initially denied the request in November.
Chauvin pleaded not guilty to unintentional second degree murder and second degree manslaughter. He also pleaded not guilty to third degree murder, a charge reinstated in the case last week.
Twelve of the 14 jurors have already been selected. Two of these jurors will be substitutes.
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