Will Daunte Wright's killing affect Derek Chauvin trial? Judge denies defense motion to sequester jury
MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA: Hundreds of demonstrators poured into the streets of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, after the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop. The officer who fatally shot Wright mistakenly confused her gun for her taser, police officials said on Monday, releasing the video as they tried to ease tensions amid the Derek Chauvin trial.
The judge presiding over Chauvin's murder trial, Peter Cahill, as per reports, denied a motion by the defense to sequester and question the jury in the aftermath of Wright’s death. Jury sequestration is the isolation of a jury to avoid accidental or deliberate tainting of the jury by exposing them to outside influence or information that is not admissible in court. As per Judge Cahill, the jury would be fully sequestered beginning next Monday when closing arguments are expected to start.
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Will this tip the murder trial against Chauvin?
Defense attorney Eric Nelson asked that jurors be questioned on what they had heard about the police shooting of Wright - Brooklyn Center is a nearby city in Hennepin County. One of the jurors lives in Brooklyn Center, and others have ties to the city, Nelson said. He said jurors should have already been sequestered due to the high-profile nature of the case and its tendency to evoke strong emotions. Nelson asked that jurors be warned at the beginning of each day to avoid all media.
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher said that he didn't believe jury sequestration would be effective. He explained that earlier, avoiding media meant not reading newspapers or watching television; but now media are omnipresent, he said.
Judge Cahill ruled against the motion to question the jurors about what they had heard about Sunday's shooting, saying that it was a totally separate case. He expressed worry that such questioning might lead jurors to believe there were new threats to their safety. It would be different, Cahill said, if the civil unrest had followed a verdict.
"This is a totally different case," Judge Cahill said after denying the defense's motion. He acknowledged that some jurors may have heard about the civil unrest in Minneapolis Sunday night, but that no significant change in the jury's security had taken place.
"The idea here you're going to be able to sequester a jury away from any officer-involved shooting or officer-involved death is really going to be an — not just an uphill battle, it will be impossible to do so," Laura Coates, a former federal prosecutor said.
Nonetheless, the defense is worried. The unrest will be at the “forefront of the jury’s mindset,” Nelson said. “A verdict, in this case, will have consequences. They have been exposed to that already. The jury should be sequestered.”
Nelson’s worry is not a far-fetched one -- even if it is impossible to do anything about it. Wright’s death in the same state where George Floyd died would present a gruesome picture in the minds of the juror, despite what Judge Cahill said. The similarities are easily visible: Black man succumbs to police excesses.