Brandon Mitchell, the only Black male juror during the Derek Chauvin murder trial in Minneapolis, said the most traumatizing aspect of the trial was watching George Floyd die every single day through the constant replay of that gruesome video.
Today, however, Mitchell is facing tumult of a different kind. His integrity and impartiality are being impugned by Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson, and a score of right-wing media. Mitchell attended the annual “March on Washington” commemoration rally in August 2020, but allegedly failed to disclose that on the jury questionnaire. They are using that as one of the reasons in their motion for a retrial. And Mitchell is feeling the heat.
Mitchell told rolling out that reaching a consensus to convict Chauvin on second-degree and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges was much less an intense experience than the actual trial.
“The most intense moments were in the courtroom, during the trial, just because of what we had to watch every day. We got to watch somebody die each day. Whew! There there was nothing more intense than that, just flat out,” Mitchell told the hosts on the “rolling out AM Wake-Up Call” show.
“You have to watch George Floyd die every day and sit in agony, and listen to his family … Those were the intense moments. Anything outside of that, it was pretty light.”
When the trial came to a merciful conclusion, the deliberation phase was absent of any tension or theatrics because, according to Mitchell, the defense did not present “a strong case.”
“We had been in the trial for four weeks. We had seen all the evidence. And it wasn’t like the defense really had a strong case. There weren’t really a lot of discussions to have. We all were pretty much on the same page, in terms of the jurors.”
Mitchell, 31, said right-wing media recently found a photo of him attending the annual March on Washington commemoration in D.C. It was located on the Facebook page of his uncle. Mitchell wore a shirt with the words “Get Your Knee off Our Necks,” and donned a “Black Lives Matter” hat. Defense attorneys believe the t-shirt is an obvious reference to how Chauvin murdered Floyd on Memorial Day 2020.
Detractors and defense attorneys argue that his attendance at the Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech proved his inability to be impartial.
“Over the past few days, I have witnessed some media outlets find a photo and create a narrative about the photo while completely ignoring the easily accessible facts,” Mitchell said of some media painting him as a radical activist. “This is not only misleading to the public but it creates confusion and dissension among the general public. We should all be trending toward similar common goals as an American Society. It is important for reporters and media outlets to report with ethics and integrity.”
