Two nights before the jury began deliberating in the Derek Chauvin murder trial, US Rep. Maxine Waters visited Brooklyn Center, Minnesota and called on protesters to “stay on the street” and “get more confrontational” if there is no guilty verdict.
On Monday, the fired Minneapolis police officer’s defense cited those words to call for a mistrial.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson said that Waters’ comments over the weekend, paired with recent Chauvin content in several fictional TV shows, furthered his earlier argument that the judge should have sequestered the jury and ordered them to avoid all media throughout the trial.
Judge Peter Cahill denied the motion for a mistrial. But he spoke harshly about the elected officials who spoke out about the trial while it was still unfolding, saying they have a constitutional duty not to interfere with the legal process.
“I’ll give it to you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you an appeal that could lead to this whole case being overturned,” Cahill said.
A message seeking comment from Waters’ office was not immediately returned late Monday afternoon.
Cahill said he doesn’t think the jury was prejudiced by elected officials’ comments because they were instructed not to watch the news. Jurors will be sequestered in a hotel until they have verdict.
“I wish that elected officials would stop talking about the case,” Cahill said. “Their failure to do so is abhorrent, but I don’t think it’s prejudiced the jury.”
“A congresswoman’s opinion doesn’t really matter a whole lot,” he added.
*story by Insider
