St. Cloud Lawyer: No Reason to Keep Chauvin Jurors Names Sealed

(KNSI) – A St. Cloud area legal expert says there’s no reason to keep the names of the jury in former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin sealed.

Prosecutors asked a judge last week to reject a request by media outlets to unseal the names of the jurors who convicted Chauvin of murder in the death of George Floyd.

Attorney Mike Bryant, the managing partner of the Bradshaw and Bryant law firm, says jurors’ names are seldom sealed. He says the only reason they were in Chauvin case is that the worldwide public interest in the case, the trial getting broadcast on TV, and because the courts didn’t want any of the jurors influenced by outside sources. Bryant says jurors’ names are made public in the name of transparency.

“When they became jurors, the judge indicated to all of them that their names eventually would come out and that he would choose a time when he thought it was safer or when enough publicity had gone by. And then he would release the names. So he told the jurors, this was coming. This isn’t totally unexpected.”

Judge Peter Cahill had ordered the jurors’ identities be kept secret for at least 180 days. Earlier this month, the media coalition asked Cahill to release the information immediately, saying there was no known threat to warrant keeping their names sealed. Prosecutors argued that releasing their names now could subject them to harassment and make it harder to seat a jury for the trial of three codefendants.

Bryant says the court released the basic demographics about jurors, and he assumes the media wants to know more.

“They probably want to talk to him and see if there’s any more that can be gleaned from the jury deliberation or from the just their experiences jurors.”

Bryant says releasing the jurors’ names shouldn’t impact Chauvin’s appeal process or the upcoming state and federal trials.

“It’s probably too late. There have already been new trial motions in the courts already handled those, so it’s probably too late to have any effect on the trial. And any impact it would have on future trials or effect on strategy has already been dealt with because the parties know who the jurors were. The parties have that access or the ability to follow up with jurors and ask them questions if they wanted to. Often right after the trial, the judge will debrief the jury and talk to them about their views. And so, there’s a lot of information gained along those lines as far as what jurors are thinking.”

Three other former officers were seen on video assisting in restraining Floyd the day he died in May 2020. Thomas Lane, J. Kueng, and Tou Thao will go to trial on state charges in March of 2022. Chauvin, along with the three men, also face federal charges. A date for the federal trial hasn’t been set.

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