Derek Chauvin juror defends participation in D.C. march after photo of him in BLM shirt surfaces online
The murder trial of ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin is back in the headlines after a photo that recently surfaced on social media showed one of the jurors wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt at a civil rights march last summer, raising questions about the jury’s impartiality.
Brandon Mitchell, the first juror to speak publicly since Chauvin was found guilty of killing George Floyd, insisted on Monday that he remained neutral during the three-week trial last month and was honest during jury selection. He said he joined the Aug. 28 event in the nation’s capital to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.
The viral picture shows the 31-year-old high school basketball coach wearing a T-shirt with a picture of the late civil rights legend and the words “BLM” and “Get your knee off our necks.” Critics said the photo suggests Mitchell may be an activist who went to the trial with a preconceived opinion of Chauvin.
The fired police officer is awaiting sentencing after the 12-person jury convicted him of murder and manslaughter in the May 2020 killing of Floyd. Chauvin, who knelt on the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes, is expected to appeal the conviction.
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, has not publicly addressed Mitchell’s photo, but experts say he will likely use the image as grounds for an appeal. Civil rights attorney Brian Dunn told The Washington Post that the photo is “undeniably suggestive of a possible bias in this juror,” but a judge would have to determine whether Mitchell “lied about, or failed to provide complete answers on whether he has engaged in public activism, or whether he has any affiliations with BLM that go beyond the mere wearing of the shirt.”
During jury selection, prosecutors and Chauvin’s attorney questioned each prospective juror about their views on race and policing in America. Most of them were excused during the process.
Mitchell, who was known as Juror #52, told the court under oath that he had a “neutral” view of Chauvin and supported Black Lives Matter. He also answered “no” to two questions regarding activism in his jury questionnaire, he told the Star Tribune. The questions specifically asked whether he had participated in demonstrations in the aftermath of Floyd’s murder or joined any protests against police brutality.
But the March on Washington, he told the paper, was “100 percent not” a protest for Floyd. He said the event was “a big deal” and served as a platform to encourage voter participation.
“It was directly related to MLK’s March on Washington from the ’60s,” Mitchell said. “The date of the March on Washington is the date.”
The event, dubbed “Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” drew thousands of people to the city and was led by the Rev. Al Sharpton. It served to honor King’s historic march and to call for criminal justice reform, police accountability and racial equality. Event organizers also used the march to mobilize voters for the November elections and urge lawmakers to pass a voting rights bill and a police reform proposal.
Family members of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner and other Black men and women killed by police in recent years were also in attendance.
Mitchell, who is also Black, said in a TV interview last week that being in the courtroom for Chauvin’s trial was like “watching somebody die on a daily basis.” He said he and his fellow jurors only took about 10 hours to reach a unanimous verdict because they were mostly on the same page.
“There were a few hiccups with terminology and understanding exactly what the instructions were…” he told ABC News. “There wasn’t too much banter back-and-forth.”
The photo going viral this week was originally shared by Mitchell’s uncle, but the juror said he does not remember wearing or owning the shirt.
