Derek Chauvin’s case is now in front of the jury, but there was a surprise in court before it recessed. The jury heard hours-long closing arguments from both prosecution and defense on Monday, April 19, and then the judge gave them the case. After the jury had departed, the judge rebuked Maxine Waters, far-left Democrat member of the House of Representatives from California. Judge Peter Cahill called Waters’ behavior “abhorrent” and said, “Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned…”
As previously reported by LibertyNation, Waters had appeared at a demonstration in Brooklyn Center, MN, where she told reporters, “I hope we’re going to get a verdict that will say guilty, guilty, guilty,” for Chauvin. “And if we don’t, we cannot go away.” She also said, “I’m going to fight with all the people who stand for justice,” and that “we’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active. We’ve got to get more confrontational.”
Hennepin County's Judge Cahill has been fairly even-keeled throughout the trial, with just a few flashes of anger or impatience. However, Monday saw him unleash a furious outrage at Waters. Cahill said:
“I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch … if they want to give their opinions, they should do so in a respectful and in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution to respect the co-equal branch of government.”
After describing his disgust with Waters' remarks, Cahill declined to make any new rulings based on them. He left defense counsel chuckling with the line, “A congresswoman’s opinion really doesn’t matter a whole lot.”
A Final Appeal To Emotion
There was no new evidence submitted to the court on Monday – that part of the trial was over last week. It was all argument, describing how the jury should process the evidence, how they should think about it, and what they should regard. Prosecutor Steve Schleicher was first up. He focused on Chauvin’s decision “not to let up, and not to get up,” a line he repeated several times to jurors. There were a few other catchphrases too, including, “He knew better, he didn’t do better.” Regarding the evidence presented by the defense team, Schleicher deemed it “not common sense, nonsense.”
Insulting the evidence and arguments presented by the defense was a theme during Schleicher’s closing arguments and was picked up by Jerry Blackwell, another prosecutor, who addressed the jury last. Blackwell called the defense theory and evidence “stories” and accused them of “shading the truth.” Mr. Blackwell’s last line to the jury was, “You were told that Mr. Floyd died because his heart was too big – the truth of the matter is the reason George Floyd is dead, is because Mr. Chauvin’s heart was too small.”
Defense attorney Eric Nelson challenged the prosecution’s denigration of the defense, and the judge thought he sufficiently corrected the prosecution’s behavior with his jury instructions. He declined to grant a mistrial over the prosecutorial misconduct. After that, he overruled Mr. Nelson’s second request for a mistrial, presented because of Maxine Waters' call for a guilty verdict above all.
The court stands in recess until the jury comes back with questions or a verdict. Meanwhile, cities are bracing for the verdict and violence from radical progressives, BLM, and Antifa, if Chauvin is acquitted, and perhaps even if he is convicted. If so, Congresswoman Waters might have given the defendant another chance to walk free due to her remarks.
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Read more from Scott D. Cosenza.
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