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Federal Trial Begins For Former Police Officers In George Floyd Killing

Source: Stephen Maturen / Getty

As you all know, ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted and sentenced for the murder of George Floyd, and he’s pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights—but that doesn’t mean the “justice for George Floyd” fight has come to an end.

Jury selection has concluded for the other three ex-police officers involved in Floyd’s death and accused of violating his civil rightsThomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao—and, predictably, the 18 selected jurors are mostly white while two appear to be of Asian descent, according to the Star Tribune. The federal trial for the three officers, who also face state charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter, was recently pushed back from March 7 to June 13, but here’s a little of what we know about the 12 jurors and six alternate jurors so far.

The Tribune reported that the “jury includes people from the Minneapolis metro area, as well as suburbs and far southern Minnesota.”

Juror #3 is a project captain at an architectural firm in Hennepin County and a member of the American Home Brewers Association. Juror #6, one of the two who appear to be of Asian descent, is also a Hennepin County resident and is also active in the Minnesota Indonesia Society. Juror #11 is an Olmsted County computer programmer who is active in the Methodist Church. Juror #14 is a Ramsey County woman and a public affairs director for a local government. She’s also active in Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Juror #16 is a Blue Earth County woman who is a retired accountant and is with the University of Minnesota master gardener program.

The rest of the juror profiles are all listed in the Tribune’s post, so instead of wasting bandwidth by listing them all, I’ll just point out that the other Asian juror is an alternate, meaning, so far, only one non-white juror has been reported out of the 12 who are expected to preside over the trial.

According to the New York Post, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson has insisted that the case has nothing to do with race—which is typical of fragile white people who refuse to acknowledge the easily demonstrable fact that Black people, and especially Black men, are disproportionately vulnerable to police brutality and extrajudicial executions.

Magnuson reportedly made his racism denial remarks to a potential Black juror who questioned if he could be impartial “due to my color.”

“There is absolutely nothing about the subject of religion, race or ethnicity that’s involved in this case,” Magnuson said. Suffice it to say, the potential Black juror was dismissed.

Joe Daly, an emeritus professor at Mitchell Hamline Law School, explained to the Post why Magnuson is loud and wrong.

“It is true that it has nothing to do with race in the framework of the law and facts,” Daly said. “But from what I can see it has almost everything to do with race. It has to do with what we know about how police enforce minor crimes against African Americans, how police have acted toward African Americans, minority people.”

Exactly.

ALSO SEE:

Justice For George Floyd: Prosecutors Face High Legal Standard In Ex-Cops’ Federal Civil Rights Trial

Old Video Resurfaces Of Joe Biden Saying MLK’s Assassination Lacked The ‘Worldwide Impact’ Of George Floyd’s Murder

Mostly White Jury Selected In Federal George Floyd Case, Judge Claims Case Has ‘Absolutely’ Nothing To Do With Race  was originally published on newsone.com