Commentary: Dershowitz Makes Huge Chauvin Call: ‘The Judge Made a Terrible Mistake’

Those who watched the jury selection for Derek Chauvin’s trial in the death of 👤George Floyd said the recurring sentiment among potential jurors was the fear of reprisals to themselves or their families if they didn’t produce the verdict the left demanded, which was guilty of murder.

Those who verbally expressed this fear were summarily dismissed. But although the individuals ultimately selected to serve on the jury might not have explicitly voiced this concern, it is unreasonable to believe it did not enter their minds.

The death of Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody both riveted and divided the nation as have only a handful of cases in history. Because of the sheer volume of media coverage, it was nearly impossible to find 14 jurors who did not have some level of familiarity with this case.

Once the selection was completed and the trial had begun, the media coverage exploded.

Longtime Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz believes Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, who presided over the trial, made a terrible mistake by not sequestering the jury. He appeared on Newsmax’s “Spicer and Co.” on Tuesday to weigh in.

Dershowitz began by stating the obvious: Chauvin’s actions were “inexcusable morally.”

The larger point is the verdict, which he considers to be “questionable because of the outside influences of people like Al Sharpton people like and Maxine Waters. Their threats and intimidation and hanging the ‘Sword of Damocles’ over the jury and basically saying if you don’t convict on the murder charge and all of the charges, the cities will burn, the country will be destroyed, seeped into the jury room.”