Jury to hear opening arguments in Derek Chauvin trial for George Floyd's death

A jury will gather on Monday to hear whether the deadly arrest of George Floyd, which ignited a global protest movement ten months ago, amounts to murder as opening arguments commence in the trial of former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin.

Over two weeks of jury selection, many jurors told Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill and the lawyers on each side that they recognised the scrutiny their deliberations would come under, not least by those who view the trial as a reckoning for how Black people are policed in the US.

“It's been a long time coming,” a gospel choir sang on Sunday evening at a prayer service attended by Floyd's relatives. “But I know a change is gonna come.”

The service was held in a church a few blocks east of where Chauvin, who was white, was caught on a bystander's video, with his knee on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man.

Philonise Floyd, a brother of George Floyd, said before the service began that he had faith that prosecutors from the Minnesota attorney-general's office would see Chauvin convicted.

“The video is the proof,” he said.

Chauvin, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, with his lawyers arguing that he followed his training and that the main cause of Floyd's death, which the county examiner ruled a homicide, was a drug overdose. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge.

Jurors will head to a courtroom in a tower in downtown Minneapolis ringed with concrete barriers, barbed wire and soldiers from the state's National Guard. For blocks around, businesses are closed and windows boarded up, fearing a repeat of the arson and other property damage that occurred after Floyd's death.

Less than three miles away, residents maintain a vigil at the intersection where Chauvin kept his knee on a handcuffed Floyd's neck for about 9 minutes as Floyd uses his final breaths to plead for his life. Chauvin and three other officers were arresting Floyd on suspicion of passing a fake $20 bill at the Cup Foods grocery store nearby.

Four sets of barricades block police from coming to the intersection, now called George Floyd Square, which is filled with flowers, posters, murals and other tributes to Floyd.

The jury, including three alternates, is made up of six white women, three white men, three Black men, one Black woman and two multiracial women, according to court records.

“I'm thankful that it is a diverse jury,” Paris Stevens, a cousin of Floyd who works as a nurse in North Carolina, said in a telephone interview. “I'm very anxious because you don't know what's going to happen, but I'm just glad that this process is starting.”

She and other relatives have been told by the court they must take turns in using a single chair reserved for Floyd's family in the courtroom, which has been kitted out with Plexiglas screens, hand-sanitiser stations and other anti-coronavirus measures.

Chauvin has also been allocated a single chair for his supporters, which has not been used by anyone since the trial began with jury selection on March 8 except for the occasional sheriff's deputy overseeing security wanting to take the weight off his feet.

Legal experts have noted that US police officers have almost never been found criminally liable for killing a citizen. Chauvin's lawyers have said they will try to convince the jury that the fentanyl, an opioid painkiller, found in Floyd's blood by the medical examiner played a bigger role in killing Floyd than the officer's restraint.

Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist who joined the Floyd family at Sunday's service, echoed prosecutors in calling this an “attempt to smear his name.”

Tiffany Jeffers, a former Maryland prosecutor and a Georgetown law professor, said she saw the defence's case as an uphill battle in part because of the widely seen video of the arrest, which is due to be shown to the jury, though all members have said they already saw at least snippets of it.

“This video is just so powerful,” Jeffers said.