April 19, 2021

Jury Deliberation Begins in Derek Chauvin’s Trial

People gather on April 18, 2021 at the site of George Floyd's death.Matthew Hatcher/SOPA/Zuma

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After hearing three weeks of testimony, the jury in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial has begun deliberating.

The prosecution and the defense concluded their closing arguments this afternoon. Prosecutor Steve Schleicher, referring to the infamous video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, urged the jury, “Use your common sense. Believe your eyes.” 

He also attempted to refute the defense’s argument that Floyd possessed “superhuman” strength—a notion, as my colleague Nathalie Baptiste has reported, that dates back to slavery. This argument, Nathalie notes, seems to refute the defense’s suggestion that Floyd’s drug use significantly contributed to his death. “So which is it?” Nathalie writes. “Was Floyd a superhuman Black man incapable of feeling pain or was he one normal interaction away from death?”

“This wasn’t policing,” Schleicher concluded. “This was murder.”

The defense, on the other hand, attempted to sow reasonable doubt among the jurors as to the cause of George Floyd’s death. Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that Chauvin was a “reasonable officer” acting on his training during an event more complicated than what the video showed.

The jury could take hours, days, or weeks to come to a verdict. Minneapolis is already preparing for potential protests in the case of an acquittal. Not only are businesses boarding up, but Minneapolis public schools are switching from in-person to remote learning during the latter part of the week. But until the verdict is announced, there’s not much to do but wait.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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