State trial begins for two ex-MPD officers over role in George Floyd's murder

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the joint trial of a pair of ex-Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting George Floyd's killing, nearly two and a half years after his death.

The trial in Hennepin County District Court for J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao will be the third in connection with Floyd's killing, which ignited worldwide protests and a nationwide reckoning in policing.

Former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted last year of second-degree murder and manslaughter for pressing his knee into Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes outside Cup Foods as Floyd pleaded for his life. Chauvin later pled guilty to federal charges for violating Floyd's civil rights and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Kueng, Thao and fellow officer Thomas Lane, were found guilty of the federal charges in a jury trial and are serving federal sentences ranging from 2 ¹⁄₂ to 3 ¹⁄₂ years. Kueng and Lane helped Chauvin hold a handcuffed Floyd to the ground while Thao held off agitated bystanders concerned for Floyd's well-being.

They face two charges: aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter. If found guilty of both counts, they could receive at least 16 years in prison.

Kueng, 29, and Thao, 36, rejected an offer that Lane, 39, accepted to avoid this state trial. The plea deal would have allowed their state sentences to be served at the same time as their federal sentences. They've been in custody at federal prisons out of state and were returned to Minneapolis for the trial at the Hennepin County Government Center.

Jury selection is expected to last two weeks, and the trial could last until mid-December.

The case is bound to be repetitive with much of the evidence, witness testimony and emotion seen in the previous trials. But Minneapolis defense attorney Joe Friedberg said he doesn't believe this is a slam dunk for the prosecution.

"This is a whole new ballgame," he said. "There are issues that haven't really been examined."

Friedberg said the defense should challenge Floyd's cause of death, and that Hennepin County chief medical examiner, Andrew Baker, should be questioned about how he reached his conclusions.

Baker found that Floyd's cause of death was "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression." He also listed hardening and thickening of the artery walls, heart disease and drug use as other significant conditions. Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in Floyd's system.

Independent medical examiners hired by Floyd's family found he died of asphyxiation.

Prosecutors argue they intend to "prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that George Floyd did not die from a drug overdose, an enlarged heart, carbon monoxide, or whatever other mechanism of death defendants suggest to the jury" in a litany of motions earlier this month.

The state tried to prohibit jurors from seeing evidence from MPD training on fentanyl, but Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill denied the motion.

Procedurally, there is one big difference compared to the Chauvin's state trial: Like the federal trial, it won't be livestreamed for the world to see.

This is because Minnesota still is one of the few states that ban cameras in the courtroom. Cahill made exceptions to the rule because of the pandemic. It was the first criminal trial to be fully televised in the state. The Minnesota Supreme Court is now considering whether to expand camera access.

Members of the public can attend in-person, but seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Seven seats are available inside the courtroom on the 18th floor. An overflow room to watch a live camera feed on the 16th floor has 46 seats for the public.

Also missing this time around is the barbed-wire fence surrounding the building with National Guard soldiers at the ready.

Rick Petry, professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, said the focus of this trial is determining what role Thao and Kueng played in Floyd's death, a process that carries re-traumatization and fatigue.

"Some people will probably watch it from afar. Some of us will be watching it very closely," Petry said. "But we need some closure in this community so that we can move forward and hopefully we'll get that once this trial is completed."