MINNEAPOLIS — For the second time in Minnesota history, state criminal proceedings will be livestreamed to the world on Tuesday morning, when jury selection begins in the trial of former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter.
The first livestreamed trial, of course, was the Derek Chauvin case, which garnered international news coverage in March and April of 2021.
But what you saw earlier this year in the Chauvin trial will look different than what you see starting Tuesday in the Potter case.
For starters, the case is not expected to last nearly as long. During Chauvin's trial, for example, Judge Peter Cahill set aside three full weeks for jury selection before opening statements in late March. In the Potter case, Judge Regina Chu has carved out only about a week for jury selection, with opening statements expected to start Dec. 8.
"I think there will probably be some people that really don't know about the Potter case versus the Chauvin case," said Joseph Daly, an emeritus professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. "Picking a jury will be less time consuming, to find a jury that doesn't have prejudice."
After the court seated the jury in the Chauvin case in late March, jurors listened to testimony from 46 witnesses (38 from the state, seven from the defense, and one rebuttal witness) over the course of three weeks until a verdict on April 20.
Although it's not possible to say how many witnesses will ultimately appear in the Potter trial, the state and defense teams have both provided much shorter witness lists to the court, according to documents. For example, in the Chauvin trial, the state presented a prospective witness list of more than 350 people, compared to about 50 in the Potter case.
"The typical criminal case that I've been involved in, if it had 10 witnesses, it would be unusual. That was pretty dramatic in the Chauvin case," Daly said. "This is pretty dramatic, too. But, there won't be as many witnesses because there weren't as many witnesses around who saw this."
Like the Chauvin prosecution, Attorney General Keith Ellison is once again expected to bring a full complement of attorneys to prosecute Kim Potter. But the former Brooklyn Center officer has also hired multiple attorneys, including Earl Gray, a well-known defense lawyer who is simultaneously representing former Minneapolis Police officer Thomas Lane.
"Very bombastic. Very aggressive," Daly said of Gray. "You'll see a different approach from the defense perspective."
The evidence is obviously different and unique in each criminal trial, too, and unlike Chauvin, Potter does not face any murder charges.
Instead, she faces first-degree manslaughter as well as second-degree manslaughter (the latter of which Chauvin faced and was found guilty). To prove first-degree manslaughter against Potter, the state will need to prove that she caused the death of Daunte Wright while also committing a misdemeanor crime of "reckless handling or use of a firearm." To prove second-degree manslaughter, the state must present evidence that shows Potter displayed "culpable negligence."
Video will again play a key role for the jury, but in the case of Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd, jurors saw multiple angles of bystander cell phone video along with hours of body camera footage. In fact, one entire afternoon early in the trial was devoted to watching body camera clips from Chauvin and three other MPD officers involved in the response.
Potter's deadly shooting of Daunte Wright, meanwhile, happened much faster. In court filings, the defense has indicated it could present a number of different arguments, including "innocent accident," "innocent mistake," "her perceived use of a Taser was reasonable," and "lack of causation."
"She was saying, 'Taser, taser, taser,'" Daly said, referring to the body camera footage. "That's the theory of the defense's case. A mistake."