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The verdict came stunningly and tellingly quickly. The trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd concluded rapidly with less than 24 hours of deliberations.
And with such a quick verdict, the conclusion almost felt inevitable. The trial ended with the jury finding Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts.
Now, there are REAL questions regarding the charges, and how the third-degree murder charge was reinstated after being initially removed. However, for anyone who actually paid attention to the trial, and the charges involved, reasonable doubt clearly existed.
But the problem is that in order to consider reasonable doubt for Derek Chauvin at trial, there would have needed to be a jury of uncommon courage. Given how determined the media has been to remind the jury that their lives could be ruined at a moment’s notice by an activist press and a mob that wanted a guarantee that this trial would go the way they wanted, there was no way that all the jurors could stand up to the mob.
So the mob got what they wanted at trial – three guilty verdicts. The jury gets what they want – they get to go home, and not be sought out by media or mobs that already tried attacking the former house of a defense witness with animal blood.
The former Santa Rosa home of Barry Brodd, who testified as a defense witness in the Derek Chauvin murder trial, was smeared with animal blood and had a severed pig’s head dumped on the front porch in an early Saturday morning vandalism attack.”
Investigators believe the vandals thought that Brodd — a former Santa Rosa police officer — still lived at the residence but he has not been a Santa Rosa resident for a number of years.”
“Because Mr. Brodd no longer lives in the city of Santa Rosa, it appears the victim was falsely targeted,” police said in a news release.”
The mob does not care. The mob wants results. The jury was not sequestered until deliberations began. Anyone paying attention had to have heard of this Santa Rosa vandalism, or Maxine Waters trying her best to induce a mistrial. There was very little hope that the jury would have the spine to stand up and fairly examine the evidence presented at trial. If they wanted to leave, and live their lives, then all they had to do was toss one man to the mob.
And even if they didn’t hear Joe Biden’s comments or Ilhan Omar’s comments, they certainly knew the sentiments existed. If there was a single holdout in that jury room, all the other jurors had to say was “do you want your house burned down?” What a sad state for justice in this country. If a jury is too afraid to render an honest verdict, we are all in trouble, despite the fact that this case is clearly headed for appeal on not just the reinstated charges, but Maxine Waters’s comments (and likely Biden’s and Omar’s as well).
Guess what would happen if I ever found myself on a jury in which we were asked to (essentially) read the mind of the defendant to determine guilt.
That said, I'd vote to convict Chauvin of all charges, but only to protect my family. The appeals process can sort it out later.
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) April 20, 2021
The real question is, now that the mob got the verdict at trial that they wanted, what will the mob do tonight? Will the jury’s gamble of sacrificing one man to the mob work to keep Minneapolis – and other areas of the country – from being looted and burned to the ground?
https://t.co/2n56CBHGKU pic.twitter.com/wHCzBJH8AX
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 20, 2021
The scene on the ground right now does not look promising, with Antifa and BLM still promising to be on the march tonight, no matter what the verdict was. The violence tonight might be less because of the trial verdict, but there still will be violence, and it will be explained away by the media using Kamala Harris’s excuse. After all, the official Black Lives Matter Twitter account is upset about the verdict because this verdict shows that “the system is broken.” Nothing is ever going to be enough.
This isn’t proof the system works. It’s proof of how broken it is. Because it took us this long, and this much attention. Until we have a world where our communities can thrive free from fear, there will be no justice.
— Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter) April 20, 2021
And if any of these verdicts are tossed or reversed on appeal, then the mob will be back. The jury did not deliver justice. They delievered what the mob wanted, so they could leave. They punted to an appeals court, and if that appeals court rules differently, then the mob comes back. There is no justice here when the legal system is now overshadowed by mob rule and the heckler’s veto.
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John A Wilson says: Aren’t the charges mutually exclusive. Convicted of manslaughter AND 2d degree homicide? My gut says that they threw the kitchen sink at him to save their houses and assuming an appeal when the heat dies down.
I honestly cannot blame them. The only interesting thing is that they took a whole six hours more than the jury did to acquit O. J. Simpson.
Same thing, too – the winning lawyer in both essentially said to the jury “Do you feel lucky, punks? Do you?”
Hate_me says: I can blame them. Tolerance is great and all, but should never be extended to cowards.
The trial by one’s peers is one of the sacred aspects of our nation – and they failed that trust.
I’m not suggesting they be doxxed or persecuted in any way – just saying, while cowardice is easily understandable, it should never be acceptable.
Bronzy Joe says: They are. It’s called merger doctrine and is an corollary of double jeopardy. I did not see the jury instructions and do not know how Minnesota handles matters but it is possible that the jury is asked to provide its verdict on each in case one or more are tossed on appeal. As for sentencing, he can only be sentenced based upon the most severe.
Russ Armstrong says: If we are to have “law and order,” we first must have order. There is no law in a mob; when it’s every man for himself, no one is guilty. When the weaker are dispatched, whoever has shown himself to be the most ruthless becomes the leader, and “order” is restored. And the leader becomes the law. Thus it has ever been. And thus it will ever be, unless we stand up.
As for being sorted out on appeal… well, maybe. But I’d give pretty good odds that there are federal charges all lined up, ready to drop in case he was acquitted, and also ready in the event the conviction is overturned. Assuming, of course, that he even lives long enough to file the appeal.
Plus, as I noted elsewhere, had the trial judge declared a mistrial, he and his family would likely have had the opportunity to reenact the climactic scene of Njal’s Saga. The same goes for any judge who votes to overturn the conviction.
We haven’t really had the rule of law in this country for some decades now; it’s just gotten really blatant lately.
Aussie Supporter says: You Country is under assault from within, i think it is terminal.
Lets look at the opponents:
The Left’s side: FBI, DOJ, CIA, Homeland, Judiciary, Bureaucracy in most States, Big Tech, The Media, Half of the Republicans. Obamas Military Appointees.Millions of drones that want more handouts.
The Normal humans: only about just over half of voting citizens.
I would be looking to emigrate guys, and i am being serious here.It is only a matter of time before they start killing those that disagree with them.Be ready please.
You have less than 4 years to stop all vote fraud as well, otherwise you will branded and outlawed by the new order.
You have about 4 years i reckon, as long as Biden does not spark WW3 before then.
I am praying for the USA, but the signs are not very good i hate to say.
BrianB says: A few thousand rag tag Afghanis defeated the US military. Asymmetrical warfare works. There are millions of American patriots with hundreds of millions of guns and billions of rounds of ammo and a great many with the best training in the world and long combat experience.
The only people emigrating from the US are going to be the progs pushed into the sea. It takes time for conditions to ripen to that point, but we can count on our far left radicals to follow their predecessors into making those conditions appear eventually.
The left is Talleyrand’s universal Bourbons.
George Turner says: Nelson didn’t give the jury an alternate theory of the case, in which Chauvin is trying to save Floyd, or just trying to do his job and keep Floyd from harming himself. Nelson was good at cross examination, punching holes in the prosecution’s theory of the case, but he had to give the jury and an alternative way to interpret what they saw in the video, and he didn’t do that. If you’re going to stick with just poking holes in the prosecution’s case, you have to make sure the jury fully understands proximate cause, which is a very complex legal subject. They weren’t left without a clue.
The prosecution presented multiple contradicting theories on how George Floyd died, and Nelson’s main expert just presented the jury with yet another theory (sudden cardiac arrhythmia). But Nelson didn’t make sure they wouldn’t go back to the jury room sure that Chauvin killed Floyd by causing any one of the half-dozen available ways that Floyd might have died. In his closing, Nelson argued that if there was any other factor that contributed to Floyd’s death, they must find Chauvin innocent. That’s not actually accurate, so apparently neither Nelson, the judge, the prosecutors, or apparently Minnesota’s appellate courts understood it very well regarded criminal cases.
But aside from that, Nelson should’ve hammered home that Chauvin was following procedure, as he was taught, and drilled that into the jury’s head. He didn’t do that either. He poked holes in the prosecution’s use-of-force experts, but it didn’t hammer home that Chauvin was not operating outside any normal boundaries. Repeat it, repeat it, and repeat it again, or the jury is going to ignore the nuances of his cross examinations.
And he didn’t put Chauvin on the stand, which is almost always a mistake unless the defendant will get destroyed on cross, or is a person who can only pass for sane for about five minutes before they let the crazy out for all to see. Chauvin never had a chance to explain what he was thinking and doing to offset the prosecutions characterization, and indeed the assumptions that the whole country got from the MMA moron with an IQ of 75 who provided the narration to the videos. The jurors were left to regard Chauvin as a generic white racist rogue cop because Chauvin never took the stand to show he wasn’t. That was a critical mistake.
Nelson left the jury free to reason as follows. “I don’t know how Chauvin killed him, I just know that he did!” and he left the jury’s doubters with no counterargument to that level of logic.
aetiuz says: So, Ashley Babbit’s murderer goes free – doesn’t even get charged. Sicknick lies in state because he had a stroke. The officer who shot Michael Brown legally has his life and career ruined. And Chauvin goes to jail for doing his job. Such is justice in America. What a sad commentary.
Grim Leaper says: Thank you for the insightful commentary, George Turner. I find it a convincing explanation for the otherwise apparently cowardly behavior of the jury. Regardless of what happens in the appeals process, this is a terrifying precedent. We can undoubtedly expect a vast increase in attacks against defense witnesses and an incessant clamor of barely concealed threats against jurors. And good cops across the country will resign in increasing numbers rather than potentially face ruin for following procedures with violent, drug-addled criminals who happen to be black.
mac says: Minneapolis as a city has committed suicide. I wouldn’t take a house there if you wanted to give it to me, unless I could immediately sell it. Unfortunately, most American cities are running right on the same track as Minneapolis. Our society is destroying itself right before our eyes, and our politicians are too venal and too gutless to do anything about it. Emmitt Till’s trial was more fair than Derek Chauvin’s.
[…] Trial by Mob; […]
JeanMM says: Why did Chauvin’s attorney recommend a jury trial? He should have known that it would be nearly impossible to find an impartial jury. Wouldn’t a trial by judge be a better option?
F.D.R. in Hell says: “America is down five runs in the bottom of the 9th Inning.”
— Thomas Sowell
Ted says: The jurors hadn’t heard the one about feeding others to the crocodile. When, and I don’t say if, their names are leaked, the wreckers will be at one or more of them. I’d bet scandal book publishers and ghost writers are already trying to get to them. Pfaugh!
Hombre says: ‘“Until we have a world where our communities can thrive free from fear, there will be no justice.”
— Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter) April 20, 2021’
It takes a thoroughly stupid or demented audience to believe that the police pose a greater threat to black communities than do black criminals. But then ….
The culture wars are over and the former “normals” lost. Our children and grandchildren are socialist, gender and CRT-confused buffoons. Our institutions, including the courts, are run by corrupt Obots or quavering cowards. The Congress is controlled by totalitarian nutbags. The President is a dithering old windsock. The Vice-President is a cackling bimbo. The corporate media, big tech and big business are the enemies of patriotic Americans and the Democrat Brownshirts of BLM and Antifa are apparently uncontrollable.
How do we come back from that, with Republican hot air? Maybe not.
RANDY POCHEL says: Mob Justice is no Justice at all. The kangaroo court with chicken littles for the Jury. In the country now if you want something just riot, cheat, and burn you get your way. I heard that BLM and Antifa are back at again tonight so the sell out didnt work , I could have told you that. We dont owe the people with more darker skin anything ! The YEARS of welfare, affirmitive action, free college, and not better off. Because the Democrat who are the original KKK slave owners. Do they realize that they are still slaves to the democrates and putting them back on the plantation? Waters she another one ( oh yes there were black people that owned slaves) These people are dispicable and vile. Untill we realize that the enemy we are facing is not only flesh and blood but Good and evil.
[…] (3) Trial By Mob: Chauvin Jury Punts So They Can Leave […]
Russ Wood says: We had a similar thing last year in South Africa. A couple of farmworkers ‘sort of’ arrested a guy picking the farmer’s crops (which happened to be sunflowers). They told the young man that he was being taken to the police, and put him in the back of a pickup to drive into town. At one point, the young man jumped off, and unfortunately broke his neck. Having no cell phones. the farmworkers had to drive into town to get an ambulance. Now, there was ONE ‘witness’ who told the police that THREE men had THROWN the young man off the pickup, so that the farmworkers were arrested for murder. During the trial, there was a major riot that destroyed a large part of the town of Coligny, and despite the single witness contradicting himself, the single judge found the farmworkers guilty. Some organisations started to investigate, and proved that the single witness was a total liar, and could not have been at the scene of the death.So, the innocent workers were freed, and the town now has a lot less shops and employers that it used to have. Because if it looks like a white k*lled a black, the response is RIOT.
There looks like a similar case building in another town, but this is going to be watched, and clumsy policing isn’t going to get away with railroading people!
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