Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Jury Tampering

 I’ve mentioned repeatedly that the protests and threats of violence and intended to encourage the Chauvin jury to reach the “right” decision regardless of the actual evidence.

That seems to be small potatoes compared to what MPLS did this week.   They announced, during jury selection, that they’d reached a $27,000,000 settlement with George Floyd’s family.   There was absolutely no reason to settle the case at this point, certainly no reason to announce the settlement with the trial ongoing.    No matter what the real motivation is, the reality is that this will be perceived as one more heavy handed attempt to push “justice” toward the preferred result.   The defense has already raised the issue at trial, and it seems likely that the city just handed Chauvin one more pathway to appeal if convicted.   

What’ll be interesting is if the rioters will wait until after the appeals are finished to have one more go around.  

14 comments:

Marshal Art said...

The awarding of this money was a travesty and incredibly premature. Were the lives of his family so great before he killed himself with an overdose of illegal drugs? They could surely wait to see if the cops did anything wrong that led to his death, which seems not to be the case. This absolutely taints the case against the defendant who is clearly unlikely to get a fair trial to which as an American he is entitled. How unfortunate for him that the punk died, even if his actions were a bit aggressive...which doesn't seem true based on the complete video footage.

Craig said...

MPLS has a recent history of throwing money at these sorts of things.

I understand the notion of settling in order to avoid a huge verdict, and I understand the impulse to settle quickly and move on. So, if they were going to settle now, it should have been sealed to avoid prejudicing the criminal trial. The fact that it wasn’t is what raises questions of tampering in my mind. Unfortunately the standard of proof in a civil suit is lower and because of that it often makes sense to settle something like this.

Marshal Art said...

I truly don't know, but was Floyd married, with kids or the main means of support for some other family member(s)? If not, how could anyone possibly be entitled to tax payer money of any amount, even if his death was directly related to Chauvin's actions?

Craig said...

I don't believe that he was married at the time of his death, although he may have children from previous relationships. Based on the press conference, he's just become the primary means of support for a fairly large extended family.

I wonder how many of them invested time and money to help George get off of drugs, and to abandon his criminal actions.

Marshal Art said...

Maybe it's reparations.

Craig said...

Shockingly enough, the strategy worked in that it swayed juror’s opinions toward finding Chauvin guilty. Unfortunately, timing it during jury selection was not good timing.

Marshal Art said...

How did it sway them? In Chavin's favor or disadvantage? I'm not sure of your meaning.

Craig said...

The jurors said that the amount of the settlement and the speed of the settlement, sent them the message that Chauvin was guilty. So, they're out, as they should be. MPLS clearly sucks at protecting it's citizens, and at jury tampering.

Marshal Art said...

So they dumped the jury and will select others for the job? That's good. How can anyone be so easily influenced before hearing the facts of the matter? God help us.

Craig said...

Not the whole jury, just enough to set them back a day or two. They still might get a change of venue, it sounds like the judge is annoyed as well.

Marshal Art said...

They shouldn't be trying the case in that town.

Dan Trabue said...

No reasonable people would believe these stupidly false claims. This is what the con artists are saying about their marks. This is what the trump team is saying about their useful idiots. People who give credence to the suggestion that the election was stolen. No reasonable people would believe such nonsense.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/22/politics/sidney-powell-dominion-lawsuit-election-fraud/index.html

If this is what the trump team is saying about their useful idiots, can you now finally acknowledge that trump followers are being played for fools?

Marshal Art said...

No doubt this extremely slanted report from an known unreliable source would send a tingle to your lady parts, Dan. But millions of reasonable people reject the claims of Christianity. How reasonable people respond to extraordinary realities doesn't make the claims untrue. So Powell isn't necessarily saying the claims aren't true, but that their extraordinary.

Morons like you don't realize you're being played by enemies of the people like CNN. They count on sheep like you who won't expend the slightest effort at due diligence.

Craig said...

Art, what are you talking about? "Lady parts" are just a figment of your imagination.