Jury hears opening statements in federal trial over George Floyd’s murder

Update (Jan. 24, 2022): The jury in the federal trial of three of the four officers charged in the 2020 death of George Floyd heard opening statements Monday. The prosecution led off by accusing J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao of being intentionally indifferent to Floyd’s dying pleas.

“For more than nine minutes, each of the three defendants made a conscious choice over and over again not to act,” federal prosecutor Samantha Trepel told the jury. “They chose not to intervene and stop Chauvin as he killed a man slowly in front of their eyes on a public street in broad daylight.”

Trepel noted that video captured how Kueng at times seemed more preoccupied with some gravel lodged in the tire of the nearby police car than Floyd telling the officers “I can’t breathe.”

During their opening statements, defense lawyers countered, saying Derek Chauvin was calling “all of the shots” at the time. Tom Plunkett, the attorney for Kueng, highlighted the rookie status of Kueng and Lane, noting that both men deferred to Chauvin and called him “sir.” Earl Gray, a lawyer for Lane, added that Floyd struggled against being put into the back of their police car.

“He was all muscle,” Gray said. “These two rookies simply could not get this fellow in the back seat and were clearly doing something wrong. So what does Chauvin do? He takes over and he grabs the guy and he puts him on the ground.”

Meanwhile, Thao’s attorney Robert Paule said while Floyd’s death was a tragedy, “a tragedy is not a crime.”

Original Story (Jan. 20, 2022): The jury in the federal trial of three of the four officers charged in the 2020 death of George Floyd was selected Thursday. The three still facing charges are J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murder in his state case, pleaded guilty to his federal charges last month.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson trimmed down the pool of would-be jurors to 40 at a federal courthouse in St. Paul Thursday, before attorneys on both sides whittled that number down to 18. Among the jurors Magnuson excused was a man who said he has a problem watching video of Floyd’s death. Several other excused jurors said they could not be impartial. One woman was excused after she said she had difficulty with vandalism in the community.

The one-day jury selection was noticeably shorter than the jury selection for Chauvin’s state trial. There, the judge and attorneys spent more than two weeks questioning each juror individually. Magnuson said the court would take up some evidentiary matters on Friday, with opening statements beginning Monday.

After the federal trial, the three officers have their own state trial, where are they are charged with aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. Legal experts say the federal trial will be more complicated than the state trial:

• Kueng, Lane and Thao are all charged with willfully depriving Floyd of the right to be free from an officer’s deliberate indifference to his medical needs. The indictment against the three says they saw Floyd needed medical care and failed to help him.
• Thao and Kueng are charged with willfully depriving Floyd of the right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not stopping Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd’s neck.

Legal experts say prosecutors face a higher standard of having to show that officers should have done something to stop Chauvin, as opposed to just proving the officers did something directly to Floyd. Essentially, prosecutors must prove that the officers knew what they were doing was wrong, but did it anyway.

Magnuson said he expects the federal trial will last four weeks.