MINNEAPOLIS--The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd was delayed until at least Tuesday morning as the judge contended with a last-minute order by a higher court to reconsider adding an additional murder charge.
The trial had been scheduled to begin on Monday with the screening of jurors to weigh murder and manslaughter charges in a case seen as a referendum on police violence against Black Americans. Chauvin appeared in court dressed in a navy blue suit and tie, a white shirt and a black face mask, jotting notes in a yellow legal pad on the table before him.
Judge Peter Cahill of the Hennepin County district court has set aside three weeks for jury selection alone, mindful of the difficulties finding impartial Minneapolitans in a case that has convulsed a nation and in which an image of the victim — a selfie of Floyd faintly smiling — has become an international icon of racial justice. But that was delayed at the urging of prosecutors after the Minnesota Court of Appeals told Cahill in an order issued on Friday he must reconsider prosecutors' request to also reinstate a third charge, third-degree murder, over the defendant's objections.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin's lead lawyer, told the court on Monday morning that Chauvin would soon ask the Minnesota Supreme Court to overturn Friday's order, a process that could take weeks, although he saw no reason for that to delay jury selection. But prosecutors from the Minnesota attorney general's office urged the court to delay the trial's start until the appeal was resolved.
"We're not doing this to interfere, to slow this down, but it is a very important matter," Matthew Frank, an assistant attorney general, told the court. Prosecutors feared picking a jury when the number of charges was still unresolved could make it easier for Chauvin to appeal a verdict later, Frank said.
Cahill declined. "Unless the Court of Appeals tells me otherwise, we're going to keep going," the judge said. Prosecutors asked the Appeals Court to intervene to delay the trial, and so Cahill suspended jury selection until at least Tuesday.
