MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge to try four fired Minneapolis police officers jointly in George Floyd’s death.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge to try four fired Minneapolis police officers jointly in George Floyd’s death. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a memo arguing that evidence against the four is similar and that a single trial would spare witnesses and family members from the trauma of multiple trials. Holding one trial also would allow the community and the nation to absorb the impact of the verdicts for the four officers at once, instead of piecemeal, Ellison argued. “Forcing the community to endure four separate trials, with four separate verdicts at four different times, is likely to compound and prolong the trauma to the community,” wrote Ellison, whose office is leading the prosecution. Floyd, a Black man, was handcuffed and lying face-down when Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes on May 25.
