A coalition of media groups says restrictions on access to the federal civil rights trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s death amount to an unconstitutional closing of the courtroom.
Citing the risks of the pandemic, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson has restricted the number of people who may be in his courtroom for the proceedings against Tou Thao, J. Kueng and Thomas Lane on charges that they deprived Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority. Jury selection begins Thursday. Magnuson has also restricted how much can be seen on a closed-circuit feed of the proceedings, which will be relayed to overflow rooms where only a limited number of journalists and members of the public can watch.
In keeping with longstanding federal court rules, the proceedings will not be livestreamed or broadcast to the public, in contrast to last year’s murder trial in state court of Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis officer who kept Floyd pinned to the pavement with his knee on the Black man’s neck despite Floyd’s pleas that he couldn’t breathe. The judge in that case made an exception to the state’s normal limits on cameras, citing the need for public access amid the pandemic.
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