After 10 hours and 20 minutes of deliberation, the Chauvin jury found the former officer GUILTY on ALL charges.
Some may have breathed a sigh of relief. But, it ain’t over. Sentencing is still 8 weeks away. Then begins the appeals process.
According to Fox News:
The jury was made up of seven women and five men. Six jurors were White, four were Black and two identified as multiracial. Jurors were sequestered, their whereabouts kept secret, during deliberations that began Monday afternoon.
In the interim, the defense team will work on filing an appeal. It seems that an appeal may be allowed to go forward.
On Monday, Judge Peter Cahill gave a blistering commentary in which he condemned Maxine Waters’ very public interference in the trial. Some say that Waters’ words were a thinly veiled threat against the jurors. Judge Cahill made clear that Maxine’s words will weigh heavily in the appeals process.
Another factor is the $27 million paid by the City of Minneapolis to settle a civil lawsuit Floyd’s family. That in itself said “guilty” and likely influenced jurors.
Additionally, a list of jurors, including names, addresses and other personal infomation, is already prepared and that too is a threat.
According to trial attorney Mark Geragos:
“Just the idea of bringing jurors in [at] the same time that you’re talking about a $27 million settlement, and they’re entering a courthouse that looks like an armed encampment, and everybody knew if there wasn’t a conviction, all heck was going to break loose. It was the preordained conclusion.”
The process will likely proceed as follows:
The first step will be to file post-trial motions with the trial judge to have the case thrown out, which (attorney and law professor Randy) Zelin noted are typically summarily denied.
Next comes the sentencing process, which includes an investigation conducted by the probation department and a comprehensive workup presented to the judge. Both the prosecution and defense teams will present their cases.
After the sentencing, the appeal time starts.
Zelin said the defense will argue for appeal on the basis that Chauvin did not get a fair trial for a number of reasons, including pretrial publicity, failure to change the venue and intra-trial publicity – including Waters’ comments and even potentially comments made by President Biden.
The defense will likely also bring up the fact that jury members saw the video before it was introduced into evidence, Zelin said, and that members were unfairly burdened by the idea that Minnesota would “burn to the ground” if Chauvin was not convicted.
Prepare for this story to drag on for months and for the media to continue to stoke racial hated, all with the goal of causing further division and the eventual collapse of The Republic.