Juror #55 will be on the jury...
Surprised
Juror #55 is a white woman in her 50s who is a single parent and works in the health care field. She said she manages conflict regularly at work when helping to resolve patient issues.
She said she rides a motorcycle in honor of her late husband. The prosecution asked her if she has gone to Sturgis, and she said not in a long time.
The woman said she believes all lives matter and responded on her questionnaire that she has a neutral or slightly negative view of Black Lives Matter.
“All lives matter to me, it doesn’t matter who they are or what they are,” she said. She didn’t remember why she responded the way she did about Black Lives Matter on her questionnaire, but said she might have thought that “maybe they were taking it too far.”
However, when questioned by the prosecution she said, “Maybe they felt that they never were seen, they never were heard, whereas I don’t believe that to be true. But I’m not them and I might see things in a different view.”
She said she has never watched the whole bystander video of the moments leading up to George Floyd’s death because it was disturbing. But she said she would be willing to watch it during the trial if she were seated as a juror.
She drew a strong distinction between rioting and protesting, and said during the unrest following Floyd's death that she was afraid it would come to her neighborhood.
Juror #55 told a story of witnessing police respond too aggressively to a boy with a water bottle in his hand last summer. That boy was white, she told the prosecution.
She said she has trust in the police “until they show me something different” but that she will be able to give the word of a bystander equal weight when witnesses testify at trial.
The defense and the prosecution both "passed for cause," meaning they will not use a strike to remove the woman from the jury. She was seated as the ninth juror.
Derek Chauvin trial live updates: Jury selection continues | kare11.com