Hennepin Cty. Dist. Ct., Minn. · No. 27‑CR‑20‑12646 · D. Minn. · No. 0:21‑cr‑00108
State v. Chauvin
Courtroom View
The room, one moment at a time
The same case as the Chronological View, drawn as the room it happened in. Move the line along the bar, or step with Previous and Next, and the room changes with the moment: who was in it, and which parts of it stood empty.
- In the room
- By video
- In the case, not recorded in the room
- ?About this part of the room
In the room
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The judge
Peter A. Cahill
A Hennepin County district judge. Presided over the pretrial motions, the trial, the verdict and the sentence, and ruled on the motions after it.
Order of Oct 21, 2020 p. 2 · Sentencing order p. 2
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The judge, since 2024
Paul Scoggin
Another Hennepin County judge. He dismissed the first petition in 2025 and denied the second in May 2026. No hearing on them has been held in this room.
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Beside the bench
The court clerk
The judge’s clerk. Not named in the sources used here.
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In front of the bench
The court reporter
Took down every word. The transcript was never posted, which is why these pages quote the broadcast.
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Security
A sheriff’s deputy
The sheriff’s office ran the whole 18th floor. Its deputies walked the jurors in and out, and were the only people besides the judge and court staff allowed to speak to them.
Trial management order pp. 1, 3
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For the State
Mike Freeman
The Hennepin County Attorney. His office filed the first charges, and the case was his for two days.
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For the State
Matthew Frank
An assistant attorney general, at the State’s table through the trial, and at the sentencing.
AP, Apr 4, 2021 · Sentencing order p. 1
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For the State
Erin Eldridge
An assistant attorney general. She questioned the youngest witnesses, and the toxicologist.
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For the State
Keith Ellison
The Attorney General. He appeared for the State at the sentencing.
Sentencing order p. 1
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For the State
Jerry Blackwell
An outside lawyer, working for free. He gave the opening, questioned Darnella Frazier, and had the last word in closing.
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For the State, on appeal
Neal Katyal
A special assistant attorney general for the appeal, and one of the authors of the State’s brief.
Ct. App. opinion p. 1 · State’s appeal brief p. 1
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For the State
Steve Schleicher
An outside lawyer, working for free, and a former federal prosecutor. He questioned prospective jurors and gave the State’s closing.
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Counsel for the defense
Eric Nelson
A defense lawyer from Bloomington, the only lawyer who argued for Chauvin at trial. He also represented him in the federal case, and withdrew from it in September 2023.
AP, Apr 4, 2021 · Sentencing order p. 1 · ECF 541
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The defendant
Derek Chauvin
Present every day, as the court’s order required, with a headset to hear the sidebars. He didn’t testify. At his sentencing he offered his condolences to Floyd’s family.
Trial management order pp. 4–5 · NPR, Jun 25, 2021
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At the defense table
A legal assistant
Nelson’s only help at the table, a legal assistant who is also a lawyer and didn’t argue, the AP reported. The court allowed him up to two.
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Counsel for the defense
Amy Voss
Appeared with Nelson at the sentencing.
Sentencing order p. 1
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Counsel on appeal
William Mohrman
Took his appeal, and his petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ct. App. opinion p. 1 · Petition p. 1
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Counsel on the petitions
Gregory Joseph
His lawyer on the petitions of 2025 and 2026, and on the appeal now pending.
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The jury, being chosen
Five jurors seated
Five had been seated by March 10. Seated jurors weren’t in the room while the rest were questioned, so the desks are drawn waiting.
Order of Mar 13, 2021 p. 2 · Ct. App. opinion p. 7
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The jury, chosen
Fifteen jurors
Twelve to deliberate, two alternates, and a fifteenth to be let go if the rest stayed. Two seated earlier had been excused over the city’s settlement. The defense finished with three strikes left.
NPR, Apr 20, 2021 · Ct. App. opinion pp. 8, 17
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The jury
Fourteen jurors
Each at a desk of their own, six feet apart, known only by number and never shown on camera. Two were alternates, and they weren’t told which until after the closing arguments.
NPR, Apr 20, 2021 · Trial management order p. 3 · Camera order p. 3
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The jury
The twelve who decided
Jurors 2, 9, 19, 27, 44, 52, 55, 79, 85, 89, 91 and 92. Six white, four Black and two multiracial, seven women and five men. Juror 19 was the foreperson. Each said yes when the judge asked if the verdicts were theirs.
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On the stand, in turn
The first three witnesses
Jena Scurry, the 911 dispatcher who watched on a city camera, a store clerk who filmed, and Donald Williams, a mixed martial arts fighter who called the hold a “blood choke.”
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On the stand, in turn
Darnella Frazier, and others
The 17-year-old who filmed the video, then three other young witnesses, the off-duty firefighter Genevieve Hansen, and the clerk who took the $20 bill.
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On the stand
Chief Medaria Arradondo
Said the force should have stopped once Floyd stopped resisting. The department’s former head of training testified the same day.
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On the stand, in turn
Dr. Martin Tobin, and others
A pulmonologist, then a toxicologist, a forensic physician, a retired medical examiner, and the medical examiner who did the autopsy, Dr. Andrew Baker.
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On the stand
Philonise Floyd
George Floyd’s younger brother, the State’s “spark of life” witness, telling the jury who his brother was. A cardiologist and a use-of-force expert testified the same day.
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On the stand, for the defense
Barry Brodd, Dr. David Fowler
A use-of-force expert who said Chauvin was justified, and a retired medical examiner who said Floyd’s heart gave out. Before them, two witnesses to a 2019 arrest of Floyd, and Shawanda Hill, who was in his car.
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On the stand, in rebuttal
Dr. Martin Tobin, recalled
Called back briefly to answer a defense point about carbon monoxide.
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The Floyd family’s seat
A member of his family
One seat, in the back corner, taken in turns. His brother Philonise came on several days, his brother Rodney came from Houston, and a cousin, Shareeduh Tate, came for a day of jury selection. The rest of the family watched from another room.
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For the family
Terrence and Philonise Floyd
Two of his brothers spoke in court. Terrence asked Chauvin, “Why? What were you thinking?” His young daughter spoke in a video.
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The Chauvin family’s seat
A bailiff
Nobody from his family took the seat they were allowed. Through the first week of testimony it was usually taken by a bailiff, the AP reported.
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For him
Carolyn Pawlenty, his mother
Spoke for him at the sentencing. “When you sentence my son, you will also be sentencing me.”
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The press pool
A pool reporter
One of two seats for the press, taken in turns. The two pool reporters wrote for everyone else, and could see what the cameras didn’t, the jury and the families.
Trial management order pp. 1–2 · AP, Apr 6, 2021
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The press pool
A second pool reporter
The other press seat. The rest of the press watched the feed from a building across the street.
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The broadcast
A Court TV technician
Court TV produced the one feed every station used. Its technician in the room only kept in touch with the judge and the crew outside.
Trial management order p. 2 · Camera order p. 3
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Jury selection
One at a time
Each prospective juror was questioned alone, first by the judge and then by each side, with none of the others in the room. They had filled out a long questionnaire months before.
Ct. App. opinion p. 7
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The jurors’ desks
Nobody seated yet
Fifteen desks, six feet apart, set out where the public benches would have been. Selection starts today.
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The jurors’ desks
No jury at a sentencing
The judge decided the sentence. Chauvin had given up his right to have a jury decide the facts behind a longer one.
Sentencing order p. 4
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The lectern
Where everyone spoke
Every opening, every question to a witness and every closing came from this one lectern, behind a plexiglass shield. Everyone else at the tables stayed seated and passed notes electronically. Sidebars with the judge were held over headsets, off the record.
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The cameras
Three, fixed
One at the back facing the witness stand, one on the wall behind the jurors, and one on or near the bench facing the lectern. No juror was ever shown, and no witness under 18 without written consent. The State didn’t consent to the cameras. All four officers asked for them.
Camera order pp. 2–3 · Star Tribune, Mar 9, 2021
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The row by the doors
No seats for the public
Six chairs: one for Floyd’s family, one for Chauvin’s, one for a print and one for a TV pool reporter, and one for a Court TV technician. There was no room for the public.
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The tables
Drawn by the page’s rule
Four counsel tables, two chairs each, every table split down the middle by plexiglass. The State could have four lawyers or helpers in the room at a time. No source found says which tables were whose, so the prosecution is drawn on the left, as on every page here.
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The witness stand
Empty
Beside the bench, behind plexiglass. Witnesses were sworn standing behind the chair, and weren’t allowed to watch the trial before they testified, so only one was in the room at a time.
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The witness stand
Empty
Where witnesses testified. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The bench
Deciding on paper
The judge is in the case, but this was decided in writing, or happened outside court. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The bench
Another courtroom
This happened in a different court, in St. Paul. The room drawn here is the Hennepin County courtroom where the state case was tried.
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The lectern
Not in use
Where the lawyers spoke. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The prosecution’s tables
Empty
Where the State’s lawyers sit. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The defense tables
Empty
Where he and his lawyers sit. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The jurors’ desks
Empty
Fifteen desks, six feet apart.
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The jurors’ desks
Empty
Fifteen desks, six feet apart, where the public benches would have been. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The jurors’ desks
Empty
There’s no jury here. This happened in another court.
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The row by the doors
Empty
Chairs for the families, the press pool and a Court TV technician. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The clerk
Not in use
Where the court clerk sits, beside the bench. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The court reporter
Not in use
Where the court reporter sits, in front of the bench. Nothing was heard in court on this date.
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The bench
Empty: no case yet
Where the judge sits. On this date there was no case yet.
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The witness stand
Empty: no case yet
Where witnesses testify. On this date there was no case yet.
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The lectern
Empty: no case yet
Where the lawyers speak. On this date there was no case yet.
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The prosecution’s tables
Empty: no case yet
Where the side bringing the charges sits. It is always drawn on the left here. On this date there was no case yet.
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The defense tables
Empty: no case yet
Where the person charged sits, with his lawyers. On this date there was no case yet.
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The jurors’ desks
Empty: no case yet
Where the jury sits. On this date there was no case yet.
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The row by the doors
Empty: no case yet
Chairs for the families and the press. On this date there was no case yet.
Days in court
- Mar 9, 2021 Jury selection opens in C-1856, the largest courtroom in the Hennepin County Government Center, on its 18th floor. Nobody is allowed on the floor without the sheriff’s office’s or the chief judge’s approval. Order of Jan 11, 2021 p. 3 · Trial management order p. 1
- Mar 11, 2021 Argument on the record over third-degree murder, and the count restored at the end of it. Five jurors had been seated in the first two days. Order of Mar 13, 2021 p. 2
- Mar 23, 2021 The last juror chosen, the fifteenth. NPR, Apr 20, 2021
- Mar 29, 2021 Opening statements, then the State’s first three witnesses. Tr. Opening · Tr. Defense opening · Star Tribune, day-by-day recap
- Mar 30 – 31, 2021 The bystanders, the firefighter and the store clerk. Star Tribune, day-by-day recap
- Apr 5, 2021 The police chief, and the head of training. Star Tribune, day-by-day recap
- Apr 8 – 9, 2021 The State’s medical witnesses, and the medical examiner. Star Tribune, day-by-day recap
- Apr 12, 2021 A cardiologist, Floyd’s brother Philonise, and a use-of-force expert. The motion to sequester the jury is argued and denied. Star Tribune, day-by-day recap · Ct. App. opinion p. 9
- Apr 13 – 14, 2021 The defense case. Star Tribune, day-by-day recap
- Apr 15, 2021 He tells the judge he won’t testify, the defense rests, and the State calls one witness in rebuttal. AP, Apr 15, 2021
- Apr 19, 2021 The jury is instructed, both sides close, the mistrial motion is denied, and the jury goes out to deliberate. Jury instructions · Tr. Closing · Tr. Defense closing · Ct. App. opinion p. 9
- Apr 20, 2021 The verdicts are read, and each juror is asked if they’re theirs. Tr. Verdict
- Jun 25, 2021 The sentencing hearing, with statements from Floyd’s family and from Chauvin and his mother. Sentencing order p. 1 · NPR, Jun 25, 2021
- Dec 15, 2021 In federal court in St. Paul, Courtroom 7D, before Judge Paul Magnuson. Plea transcript p. 1 · ECF 140
- Jul 7, 2022 Sentenced in federal court in St. Paul, by Judge Magnuson. ECF 390
- Jan 18, 2023 Argued in the Minnesota Court of Appeals at 9:30 a.m., and streamed live. Minnesota Judicial Branch
Notes
How this was made, and what it leaves out
Source
Built from the record the trial court posts for this case: the complaints, the judge’s orders, the jury instructions, the verdict forms, the sentencing order, and the briefs on appeal. Then the Court of Appeals’ 2023 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court’s docket, and the federal case’s filings, read through the archive of federal court records on CourtListener. Each side is described in its own words in court or in its own filings.
The trial itself was never posted as a court reporter’s transcript, so words spoken in the courtroom are quoted from transcripts of the broadcast and cited by its clock. The court’s website sometimes refuses a request it takes for a robot, and a browser gets through.
Minnesota Judicial Branch, case page · Federal docket · Ct. App. opinion
What isn’t public
His petitions since 2024, the State’s answers to them, and the trial court’s orders on them aren’t on the court’s case page. The parts of these pages about them rest on news reports, and each one is cited. Neither are the trial exhibits. The results of the tissue testing in the federal case haven’t been made public.
The jurors’ names were released by the court in November 2021. These pages don’t use them. Jurors are known here by number, as they were in court.
Order of Oct 25, 2021 p. 3 · Star Tribune, Dec 4, 2025 · MPR News, Aug 18, 2026
Names and numbers
There are five numbers for how long he was held down, and each one belongs to someone. The first complaint said his knee was on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The judge’s 2020 order said “more than nine minutes and twenty seconds.” At trial the State said 9 minutes and 29 seconds, and the appeals court used that. The judge’s sentencing findings said “more than nine minutes and forty seconds,” and his federal plea says about ten minutes. These pages say whose number they use.
People are named when they’re a party, a lawyer, a judge, or a witness who testified in public. The young witnesses aren’t named, except Darnella Frazier, whose video and testimony are public under her own name. The 14-year-old in the 2017 case isn’t named, as the federal record doesn’t name him.
Amended complaint p. 4 · Order of Oct 21, 2020 p. 29 · Ct. App. opinion p. 5 · Findings of May 11, 2021 p. 4 · Plea agreement p. 3
What this is not
Not legal advice, not a finding, and not a verdict. He stands convicted of second-degree murder in state court and of violating Floyd’s civil rights in federal court. What he argues in his petitions is reported here as his argument, and the courts haven’t accepted any of it so far.
The other three officers were tried, or pleaded, in cases of their own. These pages mention them only where they’re part of his. Where the record doesn’t reach, these pages say so and stop.
Tell me what I got wrong
If something here is missed, misrepresented or unfairly portrayed, let me know. Point me at a filing or record and I will verify it on my end. I actively look to correct, improve and remain unbiased.
No account, no name, no email. The submission stores what you typed, your address and your browser string, to make abuse traceable and for nothing else.
Record reviewed through October 22, 2026. Nothing filed after that date is reflected here.
Terms
Plain English
Words these pages use because the courts use them. Two courts convicted him, a state court and a federal one, and a few words belong to only one of them.
The courts
- Hennepin County District Court
- The state trial court for Minneapolis and the county around it. Judge Peter Cahill tried the case there. A different judge, Paul Scoggin, has heard his petitions since.
- Minnesota Court of Appeals
- The state court that hears appeals from trial courts. Three of its judges decide each case.
- Minnesota Supreme Court
- The state’s highest court. It chooses which appeals to hear, and it turned down his.
- Federal court
- The United States’ own courts, separate from the state’s. The federal case was in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, before Judge Paul Magnuson.
- Attorney General
- Minnesota’s chief lawyer, elected statewide. Keith Ellison’s office took over the prosecution from the county prosecutor in May 2020.
- Two prosecutions
- A state and the federal government count as separate governments, so each can prosecute the same act under its own laws. That isn’t double jeopardy.
The paperwork
- Complaint
- The document that starts a criminal case in Minnesota. It lists the charges and the facts the prosecutor says support them. An amended complaint replaces it.
- Grand jury
- A group of citizens who hear the prosecutor’s evidence in private and decide whether to charge someone. Minnesota only requires one for crimes that carry life in prison, like first-degree murder, so this case started with a complaint instead.
- Indictment
- A charge brought by a grand jury. The federal case started with one.
- Information
- A charge a prosecutor files without a grand jury. In federal court that takes the defendant’s consent, which he gave for the 2017 count.
- Docket
- The court’s numbered list of everything filed in a case. Entry 42 is the forty-second thing filed.
- Plea agreement
- A written deal between a defendant and the prosecutors. He pleads guilty to some charges, and they agree on others to drop and on a range of sentence.
- Broadcast transcript
- A word-for-word record. The court reporter’s transcript of this trial was never posted, so these pages quote transcripts typed from the court’s own video feed and cite them by its clock.
The charges
- Second-degree unintentional murder
- Causing a death, without meaning to, while committing a felony. Here the felony was third-degree assault. This is the one count he was convicted and sentenced on.
- Third-degree assault
- Intentionally using unlawful force on someone, without their consent, that causes substantial bodily harm. He only had to mean to use the force, not to cause that much harm.
- Third-degree murder
- Causing a death by an act “eminently dangerous” to others, done with “a depraved mind,” without meaning to kill. Also called depraved-mind murder.
- Second-degree manslaughter
- Causing a death by culpable negligence, which means consciously taking a chance of causing death or great harm that an ordinary careful person would see.
- Lesser offense
- A crime contained in a more serious one. Minnesota law allows only one conviction for the same act, so the other two guilty verdicts were never entered as convictions.
- Under color of law
- Acting with the power of a government job, like a police officer on duty. The federal civil rights law makes it a crime to use that power to take away someone’s constitutional rights.
- Aiding and abetting
- Intentionally helping someone else commit a crime. The other three officers were charged that way.
How a case moves
- Probable cause
- Enough evidence to make it reasonable to believe a person committed the crime. It’s the bar a charge has to clear to go to trial, and it’s a lot lower than proof.
- Venue
- Where a trial is held. A defendant can ask to move it if publicity would make a fair jury impossible where the crime happened.
- Continuance
- Putting a trial or a hearing off to a later date.
- Severance
- Splitting one trial of several defendants into separate trials.
- Sequester
- Keeping jurors away from news and the public, sometimes in a hotel, so nothing outside the courtroom reaches them.
- Jury selection
- Questioning possible jurors one by one to find out if they can be fair. Also called voir dire.
- Peremptory strike
- Removing a possible juror without giving a reason. Each side gets a set number. Here the judge raised his to 18 and the State’s to 10.
- Excused for cause
- Removing a possible juror for a specific reason they can’t be fair, like having already made up their mind. There’s no limit on these.
- Alternate juror
- A juror who hears the whole trial but only deliberates if one of the twelve has to leave.
- Anonymous jury
- Jurors known in court only by number, their names kept from the public until the judge releases them.
- Earlier incident
- Evidence of something that happened before the case, which a jury may only use for a narrow purpose the judge sets. Minnesota calls it Spreigl evidence.
- The Fifth
- The right not to be a witness against yourself. A defendant who uses it doesn’t testify, and the jury is told it can’t hold that against him.
- Rebuttal
- Evidence or argument that answers the other side’s. The State goes last because it has to prove the case.
- Beyond a reasonable doubt
- The level of proof needed to convict. It means proof that leaves the jury firmly convinced, not proof beyond every possible doubt.
- Unanimous
- All twelve jurors agreeing. A verdict in a criminal case has to be.
- Polling the jury
- Asking each juror out loud, one at a time, if the verdict read is theirs.
What the jury had to decide
- Substantial causal factor
- The test for causing a death. His acts didn’t have to be the only cause, only a substantial one. Other causes don’t excuse him unless one of them alone caused the death.
- Superseding cause
- Something that comes afterward and breaks the chain, so that it alone causes the death. It’s the one way another cause can clear a defendant.
- The defense the jury was told about. No crime is committed if a police officer uses reasonable force to make a lawful arrest, and the State had to prove his force wasn’t that.
- Reasonable officer
- How force is judged. The question is what a reasonable officer in the same situation would have done at the moment the force was used, not what the officer meant or what hindsight shows.
- Prone restraint
- Holding a person face down. Police training warns it can make it hard to breathe, and says to move the person onto their side once they’re under control.
- Recovery position
- Rolling a person onto their side so they can breathe more easily. The Minneapolis police’s own training said to do it.
- Hobble
- A strap that ties a person’s legs together. The officers talked about using one and didn’t.
- Maximal restraint technique
- The Minneapolis police method of strapping a struggling person’s legs and moving them off their stomach. The defense said what the officers did began as one. The State said the knee was no part of it.
- Asphyxia
- Death from not getting enough oxygen. The State’s doctors said the restraint caused it.
- Paraganglioma
- A rare tumor that can release adrenaline. One was found at the autopsy and called incidental, meaning the medical examiner didn’t think it played a part.
The sentence
- Sentencing guidelines
- Minnesota’s chart of how long a sentence should be for each crime, set by a state commission. A judge has to stay inside its range unless there are substantial and compelling reasons not to.
- Presumptive sentence
- What the guidelines call for. For this crime and no past record it’s 150 months, inside a range of 128 to 180.
- Aggravating factor
- A fact that makes a crime worse than the usual one of its kind, like particular cruelty. It has to be proved before a judge can go past the guidelines.
- Blakely
- A 2004 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a jury has to find the facts behind a longer sentence, unless the defendant gives that up. He gave it up, so the judge decided them.
- Upward departure
- A sentence longer than the guidelines’ range. His was 270 months against a top of 180.
- Concurrent
- Served at the same time. His state and federal sentences run together, not one after the other.
- Supervised release
- A period after a federal prison term when a person lives under conditions the court sets, checked by a probation officer.
After the verdict
- Motion for a new trial
- Asking the trial judge to throw out the verdict and start over because something went wrong. It comes before any appeal.
- Schwartz hearing
- A hearing in Minnesota where a judge questions jurors about possible misconduct after a trial. He asked for one and was refused.
- Direct appeal
- The first appeal after a conviction, which looks only at what happened at trial. His was decided in 2023.
- Petition for review
- Asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to hear a case after the Court of Appeals has ruled. It turns most of them down.
- Certiorari
- Asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case. It takes very few, and turning one down decides nothing about the case itself.
- Post-conviction petition
- A way to challenge a state conviction after the appeal is over, usually with something that wasn’t in the trial record. It goes back to the trial court first.
- Knaffla rule
- Minnesota’s rule that a petition after the appeal can’t raise what was raised, or could have been raised, on appeal, with narrow exceptions.
- Structural error
- A mistake in how a case was run that’s so basic a court doesn’t ask whether it changed the result. His lawyer says the way he was charged is one.
- Motion to vacate
- The federal version of a post-conviction petition, under section 2255 of the federal code. His asks to undo his federal guilty plea.
- Ineffective assistance
- A lawyer’s work falling so far short that it denied the client a fair process. It’s the one kind of claim his plea deal let him bring later.
- Stay
- Pausing a case, or a ruling, until something else is decided.
The stamp on a ruling
- Granted
- The court said yes to the request on this card, whichever side made it.
- Granted in part
- The court gave some of what was asked for on this card and said no to the rest.
- Denied
- The court said no to the request on this card.
- Reinstated
- A charge that had been dismissed was put back, so the jury could decide it.
- Guilty
- The jury’s verdict, or his own plea in court. It becomes a conviction once the court enters judgment on it.
- Affirmed
- The court above agreed with the court below and left the conviction and the sentence as they were.
- Dismissed
- Thrown out without a ruling on whether the claims in it were right.