ST PAUL, Minnesota — Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers.
J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with depriving Floyd of his constitutional rights while acting under government authority, as fellow officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck, causing his death.
On Thursday, all 12 jurors and six alternates were selected. They are made up of people from across the state of Minnesota. Of the 12 jurors, seven of them are women and five are men. Of the alternates, three are men and three are women.
"It's going to be a much, much tougher case," said Dan Scott of Kelley, Wolter & Scott. Scott spent most of his career as either a federal prosecutor or a federal public defender in the District of Minnesota.
With opening statements on Monday, Scott said he expects at least one or two of the defense attorneys to make an opening statement and outline their defense.
"This is a little bit different than state court. State court, they'll often wait until the start of their case to outline their defense because they've had a chance to talk to the jurors already. So the jurors have been sort of inoculated as to what the issues are. That doesn't happen when the judge picks the jury," Scott said.
The indictment alleges the three officers willfully failed to aid Floyd. Kueng and Thao are also accused of willfully failing to intervene when Floyd could not breathe.
"This is not a murder case. This is a civil rights case," Scott explained.
As Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, told the Associated Press, "In the state case, they're charged with what they did. That they aided and abetted Chauvin in some way. In the federal case, they're charged with what they didn't do — and that's an important distinction. It's a different kind of accountability."
Unlike Chauvin's state trial, Scott said this one will have less emotional testimony.
"You'll have less about George Floyd's background. Murder cases have a special rule about letting you talk about the background of the person who died. There's no such special rule for a civil rights case," Scott said.
He added, "They [the prosecution] won't have that excuse here to bring in as much emotional testimony and let's face it, emotion works. So the less of it there is, the tougher it is for the government to win a case."
When it comes to the defense, Scott said, "They're going to focus on what they needed to do. What the law would require them to do in the time period from when a normal person would've realized they needed to do something and when it was too late to do anything," Scott said.
Scott expects they will finish opening statements Monday and that the first witness could possibly take the stand, as well.
Judge Paul Magnuson told the jury the trial could take about four weeks. Scott said depending on how tightly the judge controls the hours in the courtroom, he expects it could wrap up in two weeks.
Opening statements are scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m.