Chauvin Conviction may get Overturned – Juror Photographed in BLM Shirt ahead of Trial

Despite the Black Lives Matter organization and its supporters in Congress like Maxine Waters getting the “guilty, guilty, guilty” verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial that they wanted, it could all start falling apart due to the less-than-ideal conditions the trial was placed under.

During the Chauvin trial, the judge decided not to move the trail outside of Minneapolis to a different area where local residents would be less opinionated over the death of George Floyd and it seemed to have had a grave effect on the trail.

Not only have alternate jurors come out after the trial stating that they were scared of what may happen if they did not convict Chauvin on all three charges, or that they were already biased against Chauvin, but now due to reporting from The Daily Mail some of the jurors were evidently already heavily biased against the police at large. 

Brandon Michelle was one of the main twelve jurors who convicted Chauvin and just recently he admitted to lying in a pre-trial questionnaire, trying to weed out those with strong biases towards or against the police or BLM after a photo emerged of him wearing a shirt that said: “GET YOUR KNEE OFF OUR NECKS” and “BLM”.

Michelle had also admitted to attending BLM organized protests during the summer of 2020, showing he was more than biased in favour of the BLM organization and their narrative against the police, calling them racist and unjust.

Mike Brandt, a Minneapolis defence attorney, told the Associated Press that the issue with Michelle alone is not enough to overturn Chauvin’s conviction, but in the context of the several other issues with the court proceedings and the public attempts at influencing the trail it could be overturned.

Ted Sampsell-Jones, a professor at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, also told the AP that:

Speaking frankly, Chauvin did not have a fully impartial jury in the sense we usually give criminal defendants. That wasn’t the fault of the judge or the prosecutors, it was simply a function of the incredible publicity and public pressure.

The rioting outside the courthouse while the jury was not sequestered, President Joe Biden, Maxine Waters, and other congresspeople sounding off about the trail, certain witnesses being unable to testify with immunity, etc, were all issues that could have pushed the jury into making a decision, making it hard to argue that justice was served without outside intervention.

It is not known what the outcome will be once Chauvin’s defence team appeal his conviction, but no doubt he will have a lot of evidence to argue for a mistrial once the appeal is being heard.