U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson questioned potential jurors in groups to get a pool of 40 people, who had already answered an extensive questionnaire. Each side then used their challenges to stri…
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A jury was picked Thursday for the federal trial of three Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing, with the judge stressing repeatedly that fellow Officer Derek Chauvin’s conviction on state murder charges and guilty plea to a federal civil rights violation should not influence the proceedings. J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are broadly charged with depriving Floyd of his civil rights while acting under government authority as Chauvin used his knee to pin the Black man to the street. Separately, they’re charged in state court with aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter in the videotaped killing that triggered worldwide protests, violence and a reexamination of racism and policing. Jury selection took just one day for the federal trial. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson questioned potential jurors in groups to get a pool of 40 people, who had already answered an extensive questionnaire. Each side then used their challenges to strike jurors until they had just 18 people — 12 who will deliberate and six alternates. By comparison, at Chauvin’s state trial, the judge and attorneys questioned each juror individually and spent more than two weeks picking a panel. Magnuson told potential jurors they must be able to decide the case based upon its own evidence, setting aside anything else. He singled out some jurors by number and asked them pointedly if they could do so, saying he was “harping and harping and harping” because state and federal law are different and he wanted to ensure they could be objective.
