A juror in the trial of Minnesota vs. Derek Chauvin spoke out two weeks after the former officer’s murder conviction, saying being in the courtroom hearing details of the case was like “watching somebody die on a daily basis.”
Brandon Mitchell, 31, is a basketball coach at North Community High School in Minneapolis. He said that he and the other jurors didn’t watch the news during the trial and were unaware of much of what was happening across the country.
“We were really just locked in on the case,” Mitchell said. “I mean, those things are just so secondary because you’re literally, throughout the trial, watching somebody die on a daily basis, so that stress alone is enough to take your mind away from whatever’s going on outside of the four walls of the courtroom.”
Mitchell is one of the first official jurors to speak out about the trial. He spoke to ABC’s Robin Roberts Wednesday on Good Morning America, as well as other media.
He called the captured footage of Chauvin kneeling on the neck of 46-year-old George Floyd “a historic video” and “the most important piece of evidence.”
Mitchell suggested it may have been to Chauvin’s detriment that he didn’t take the stand in his case, saying “people were curious on what his thoughts were throughout the entire incident.”
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Chauvin was convicted April 20 of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The jury reached its verdict after just over 10 hours of deliberations and a trial that lasted three weeks.
Mitchell told Roberts there wasn’t much “back-and-forth” in the jury room as they deliberated.
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“I think the one juror that was kind of, I wouldn’t say slowing us down, but was being delicate with the process more so, was just kind of hung up on a few words within the instructions and just wanted to make sure that they got it right,” he said.
In extending condolences to the Floyd family, Mitchell said that he hopes the man’s death “will hopefully create some change within society.”
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