‘GOOD OPPORTUNITY’

Chauvin Juror Defends Attending March on Washington Anniversary in BLM T-Shirt

Legal experts say the issue is likely to come up in court as one of Chauvin’s bases for an appeal.

One of the jurors who two weeks ago helped convict former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murder for George Floyd’s death also participated in last summer’s March on Washington, which commemorated Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. A picture that circulated online reportedly showed juror Brandon Mitchell, 31, in Washington, D.C., wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt reading, “GET YOUR KNEE OFF OUR NECKS,” a reference to Chauvin’s killing of Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. The issue is likely to come up in court as one of Chauvin’s bases for an appeal, law professor and defense attorney Joseph Daly told the paper. “I’d never been to D.C.,” Mitchell told the Star Tribune when asked about the event. “The opportunity to go to D.C., the opportunity to be around thousands and thousands of Black people; I just thought it was a good opportunity to be a part of something.”