Jury chosen for 3 ex-MPD officers’ federal trial in George Floyd’s death

A jury has been selected for the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd.

A quick, one-day jury selection started at 9:37 a.m. By 4:45 p.m., the jurors who will decide whether or not former officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao deprived Floyd of his civil rights while acting under government authority on May 25, 2020.

In total, 18 jurors were selected, six of whom are alternates.

"Once we saw the judge was approaching this in such a different way, the judge was controlling the questioning and moving things right along, a very different process than what we saw with Derek Chauvin, I wasn’t as surprised,” said Mark Osler about how quickly the jury was seated.

Osler is a former federal prosecutor and law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Of the 12 primary jurors, five are men and seven are women. The alternates are split evenly between men and women.

The jury is also overwhelmingly white, with apparently only two people of color — two Asian people, one of whom is an alternate.

Of the 12 primary jurors, three are from Hennepin County, two are from Ramsey County, two are from Washington County, one is from each Olmsted County, Blue Earth County, Anoka County, Jackson County and Scott Country. As for the six alternates, two are from Ramsey County, one is from each Nicollet County, Hennepin County, Anoka County and Olmsted County.

“In terms of where they’re from, it’s interesting, there is a juror who is from way out in Jackson County in the southwest part of the state,” said Osler. “There are others that are from the collar counties around the metro so there are people that are going to have to travel a ways to make it to this trial and it’s probably something the judge will keep under consideration.”

Judge Paul A. Magnuson thanked the jurors for their patience throughout the day and told them to meet back at the courtroom for the start of the trial at 10 a.m. Monday.

Magnuson and the attorneys for both sides are set to meet to discuss some video and evidentiary instructions Friday morning.

Former officer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty in his federal case back in December. He was convicted of state murder charges in 2021.

“It’s very clear that this looks like a very different jury than we saw in the Derek Chauvin trial in state court,” said Osler. “They’re from different places, they’re a different racial makeup, we’ll see if that makes a difference in the way they consider the case.”