Juror 52 in the case of the State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin, offered his condolences to George Floyd’s family and said, “his name is going to live on.”
“His legacy is now cemented in history. It’s now become so much bigger than him as an individual,” Brandon Mitchell told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an interview that aired Wednesday.
“He has become a legacy. And it’s a legacy that will forever be here and … it will hopefully create some change within society.”
He added, “His name will live on and what his name means now is so much more than what they probably imagined. It’s literally cemented in history.”
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The 31-year-old basketball coach at North Community High School in Minneapolis appeared on “Good Morning America” to discuss the high-profile court case against Chauvin.
After roughly 10 hours of deliberation on April 20, the jury found Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was accused of killing George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
During Floyd’s arrest, Chauvin knelt on his neck for several minutes, until Floyd became unconscious. Floyd died later that same day.
Video of the incident, which was taken by a bystander, circulated widely and sparked racial justice protests across the nation last summer.
“It’s a historic video, unfortunately,” Mitchell said. “It was probably the most important piece of evidence.”
Floyd’s death was later classified as a homicide, and the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said his heart stopped as he was restrained.
Mitchell said it was “probably to his detriment” that Chauvin did not testify in the trial that began in March.
“People were curious on what his thoughts were throughout the entire incident,” he said.
Chauvin will be sentenced on June 25.
Outside of the courtroom, many cities prepared for unrest as protests veered into rioting after Daunte Wright was shot to death by a police officer in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on April 11.
The tension led Minneapolis to halt in-person classes as of Wednesday, fearing unrest after the verdict, according to The Washington Post.
About 3,000 National Guard troops and 1,000 police officers from elsewhere in Minnesota have been deployed throughout Minneapolis in what has been called Operation Safety Net as officials prepare for violence.
Mitchell said that he and the other 11 jurors didn’t watch the news during the trial or deliberations so they were unaware of what was happening outside the courtroom.
“We [didn’t] know what was going on. We were really just locked in on the case,” he said.
“I mean, those things are just so secondary because you’re literally — throughout the trial, you’re 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.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
