The trial of Derek Chauvin hasn’t completely ended yet but the jury did hand in their verdict last week. Many were on edge that Chauvin wouldn’t be held accountable for the murder of George Floyd but the jury’s decision affirmed what we all saw on camera.
Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images
Brandon Mitchell, who was listed as juror #52, is finally opening up about the jury process last week and addressed the overwhelming concern by right-wing pundits that Chauvin wasn’t convicted out of guilt but out of fear of another possible protest. Mitchell explained that none of the jurors were feeling public pressure that would result in the trial’s outcome while revealing what the hardest part of the trial was: re-watching the gruesome footage of Floyd’s death.
“The pressure more so came from being in the room and being under stress, but it wasn’t pressure to come to a guilty verdict,” he told Gayle King who then asked about where the stress came from. “We were just stressed about just the simple fact of everyday we have to watch a Black man die.”
In terms of how the jury quickly came to a verdict, Mitchell explained that there was little push back on anything except the actual instructions. Apparently, there was confusion surrounding how to interpret the instructions but the one confused juror ultimately came around. Check out Brandon Mitchell’s interview with Gayle King below.