Derek Chauvin Declines to Testify as His Defense Ends After 2 Days
The jury is expected to hear closing arguments on Monday and could deliver a verdict in Mr. Chauvin’s trial next week.
“I will invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege today,” Derek Chauvin said on Thursday.Credit.Still image, via Court TV
April 15, 2021, 7:25 p.m. ET
MINNEAPOLIS He settled into a swiveling chair, sitting upright and a bit stiff, in a mostly empty courtroom.
Holding a microphone in front of his chest, Derek Chauvin removed a blue mask to reveal a clean-shaven face.
As his lawyer, Eric J. Nelson, asked a series of questions, Mr. Chauvin dipped his body toward the microphone and uttered the first words the public has heard from him in the more than 10 months since the death of George Floyd on May 25.
Philonise Floyd, center, the brother of George Floyd, passes through security upon arrival at the Hennepin County Government Center earlier this month.Credit.Jim Mone/Associated Press
With a verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin set to come as early as next week, the city of Minneapolis is already preparing for protests and civil unrest. The plan, which includes nine state and local agencies, called Operation Safety Net, is one of the biggest in the state’s history, likely only trailing the response to the 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge and the protests after George Floyd died in May.
In new body camera footage shown to jurors on Tuesday in the trial of Derek Chauvin, George Floyd was seen handcuffed and sitting on the street near a Chinese restaurant, giving his name and birth date to one of the first police officers who arrived at Cup Foods after a clerk called to report that Mr. Floyd had used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
The footage was from the body camera of Peter Chang, a Minneapolis Park Police officer who arrived to back up the two rookie officers who first responded to the scene, before Mr. Chauvin and his partner arrived. Officer Chang’s testimony was the first in the trial from an officer who responded to the incident before Mr. Floyd had died.
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