The three men are broadly charged with depriving Floyd of his civil rights while acting under government authority.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jury selection began Thursday in the federal trial for three former Minneapolis police officers who are charged with violating George Floyd’s constitutional rights while fellow Officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to pin the Black man to the street. J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are broadly charged with depriving Floyd of his civil rights while acting under government authority. Separately, they’re charged in state court with aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter. Legal experts say the federal trial will be more complicated than the state trial, scheduled for June 13, because prosecutors in this case have the difficult task of proving the officers willfully violated Floyd’s constitutional rights — unreasonably seizing him and depriving him of liberty without due process. “In the state case, they’re charged with what they did. That they aided and abetted Chauvin in some way. In the federal case, they’re charged with what they didn’t do — and that’s an important distinction. It’s a different kind of accountability,” said Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Phil Turner, another former federal prosecutor, said prosecutors must show the officers should have done something to stop Chauvin, rather than show they did something directly to Floyd. Would-be jurors have already answered an extensive questionnaire, and were being brought into a federal courtroom in St.
