MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Jury choice begins Monday within the trial of two former Minneapolis cops charged in George Floyd’s loss of life. J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thou are each charged with aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional homicide and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd, who was Black, died on Might 25, 2020, after one other former officer, Derek Chauvin, who’s white, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about 9 minutes whereas Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s again in the course of the arrest, and Thou held bystanders again. One other officer, Thomas Lane, has pleaded responsible to a state cost and isn’t going through trial.

Amongst key figures for the trial:

THE JUDGE

Hennepin County Decide Peter Cahill dealt with Chauvin’s trial and is again on the bench for this one. Cahill began within the county public defender’s workplace in 1984 and labored for 10 years as a prosecutor, serving as prime advisor to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar when she was the county’s head prosecutor.

Cahill, a decide since 2007, is understood for being decisive and direct. He allowed livestreaming of Chauvin’s trial due to immense public curiosity and COVID-19 limitations, saying at a nationwide judicial convention just lately that he thought if he hadn’t, the outcome was “by no means going to be accepted by the group.”

However cameras are sometimes not allowed in Minnesota courtrooms, and with COVID-19 restrictions loosening, he’s not allowing livestreaming this time.

PROSECUTION

Legal professional Common Keith Ellison led the Chauvin prosecution on the behest of Gov. Tim Walz, after civil rights advocates in the neighborhood stated Hennepin County Legal professional Mike Freeman didn’t have the belief of the Black group.

Ellison, the state’s first African American elected legal professional common, beforehand served in Congress and labored as a protection legal professional. He appeared in court docket at occasions throughout Chauvin’s trial, however was not a part of the trial group.

Matthew Frank and Steven Schleicher, each of whom helped convict Chauvin, are again to steer that group. Frank is an skilled legal professional who additionally received a responsible plea within the case of Lois Riess, a Minnesota girl who turned infamous for killing her husband in 2018, then killing a lady in Florida and assuming her id earlier than she was captured.

Schleicher is a former federal prosecutor who led the prosecution of the person who admitted to the 1989 kidnapping and killing of Jacob Wetterling, whose preliminary disappearance helped encourage a 1994 federal legislation requiring states to ascertain intercourse offender registries.

DEFENSE

Kueng, who’s Black, was the youngest of the 4 officers on the scene and a rookie, simply days on the job. His personnel file, which says he speaks, reads and writes Russian, didn’t listing any disciplinary actions. At his federal trial, he testified that he deferred to Chauvin as a result of Chauvin was his senior officer and that’s what he had been skilled to do.

His legal professional, Tom Plunkett, represented one other former Minneapolis police officer in a high-profile case. Mohamed Noor was convicted within the 2017 deadly taking pictures of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who had referred to as 911 to report a doable sexual assault.

Thao, who’s Hmong American, was Chauvin’s associate the day of Floyd’s killing and an eight-year veteran. Metropolis information confirmed six complaints in opposition to Thao, and he was the topic of a 2017 federal lawsuit accusing him and one other officer of extreme drive.

Throughout his federal trial, Thao testified that on the day of Floyd’s arrest, he served as “a human visitors cone” to maintain visitors away from the opposite officers. He stated his position was crowd management, and he presumed Floyd was respiration.

His legal professional, Bob Paule, was a public defender earlier than he began his personal follow. His web site says he obtained a uncommon not-guilty verdict for a homicide defendant by way of a psychological sickness protection. He additionally stated he was a part of a group that received 23 homicide costs dismissed in one other case, after difficult that prosecutors acted with misconduct throughout grand jury proceedings.

GEORGE FLOYD

Floyd, 46, moved to Minneapolis from Houston a number of years earlier than his loss of life in hopes of discovering work however had misplaced his job as a restaurant bouncer because of COVID-19. On Might 25, 2020, an worker at a Minneapolis grocery retailer referred to as the police saying Floyd tried to move a counterfeit $20 invoice.

His girlfriend, Courteney Ross, tearfully testified at Chauvin’s trial that she met Floyd in 2017 at a Salvation Military shelter, and that she and Floyd each struggled with habit to opioids. She stated he suffered an overdose in March 2020, however then had been clear for a lot of weeks. She stated she suspected he started utilizing once more about two weeks earlier than his loss of life as a result of his habits modified. She stated each she and Floyd “tried actually onerous to interrupt that habit many occasions.”

Considered one of Floyd’s brothers, Philonise Floyd, testified at Chauvin’s trial that George Floyd was a pacesetter within the household, and that they grew up poor in Houston’s Third Ward.

“He used to make the very best banana mayonnaise sandwiches,” Philonise Floyd recalled, saying: “George couldn’t cook dinner. He couldn’t boil water.”

THE JURY

A jury of 16 Hennepin County residents will probably be picked to listen to the proof, and 12 will finally deliberate. Their names will probably be saved confidential till additional court docket order. Lots of of jurors have been summoned, and despatched a 17-page questionnaire to gauge their experiences and ideas on points together with civil rights, policing and their total belief of officers.

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Observe Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti

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Discover AP’s full protection of the loss of life of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd