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i'm vinny politan thanks so much for joining us tonight and believe it or not as we sit here we are just 38 days away from the first mega trial of 2021 the george floyd murder trial but guess who doesn't want to go forward in 38 days the prosecution they are fighting tooth and nail to get this trial delayed and you have to sit here and wonder what exactly is going on why are they asking for the delay at this point now they've taken this fight literally to the next level and we're going to get to that in just a moment but first warning what you're about to see is graphic in nature i want to show you how we got to this point in the george floyd case and they breathe please i can't breathe derrick chauvin is the first of four officers to go on trial for the death of george floyd he's the one seen kneeling on floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes in a video captured by a bystander what happened to floyd on that day set off weeks of violence and protests and reignited a discussion about race and policing in america most african-americans don't have peace in our soul today after watching that video of this black man begging for his life begging for breath the incident began when officers responded to a convenience store after an employee reported that floyd had tried to use a counterfeit twenty dollar bill you see your hands stay in the car let me see your other hand i'm sorry let me see your other hand both hands do nothing put your hands up right now footage from the officer's body worn camera shows how quickly the situation escalated stop resisting that officer chauvin arrives on scene as officers thomas lane and alexander king struggle to get floyd into the squad car don't do me like that man okay i told did you please doc i am claustrophobic i'm telling you is eventually taken to the ground where chauvin puts his knee on floyd's neck to restrain him with 19 years on the minneapolis police force chauvin is the senior officer on the scene and is telling the two rookie cops what to do at one point officer lane questioned chauvin about the position floyd is in him floyd was taken by ambulance to the hennepin county medical center where he was declared dead the medical examiner listed the cause of death as cardiopulmonary arrest or heart failure brought on by neck compression and the restraint by law enforcement but a pathologist hired by floyd's family offered a different opinion the cause of death is what was seen at the time of the death as he couldn't breathe asphyxia due to compression of the neck and of the back and that's homicidal but chauvin is likely to argue that he was following established police procedure this training manual offered in defense documents shows a neck restraint technique that is similar to the one chauvin used on floyd but prosecutors say his actions were criminal chauvin will stand trial on charges of second degree murder and manslaughter the other three officers whose trials will happen later are charged with aiding and abetting those crimes they all face up to 40 years in prison minnesota's attorney general keith ellison is leading the prosecution against the officers trying this case will not be an easy thing winning a conviction will be hard it always is if you're a prosecutor you've got that burden beyond any and all reasonable doubt but that is your job and we're 38 days away but that prosecutor does not want to go forward let's bring in uh core tv legal correspondent julie janae julia great to see you tonight um the state appealing now to a higher uh court trying to get to override this judge's uh rulings in this right and they're relying on covid covid19 has been the top part of their argument about this need to move the trial they don't want to go forward on that march 8 date they have asked for june 7th as a possible alternative and they have two reasons that they list in their filings to the appellate court as to why they say judge peter cahill abused his discretion that first reason is they believe that it will be safer in june to hold this trial because of the amount of people who will be outside of the courtroom protesting and demonstrating they think that will cause a spike in the spread of covid19 cases but they have a second reason they're also listing it's that they believe he abused his discretion in severing the case of derrick shovens away from the other three officers so we know all four are not going to stand trial on march 8. the other three officers who are charged with aiding and abetting they're going to be tried in august so we reached out to the attorney general's office over their displeasure with the court's ruling and in a statement in part that we got from attorney general keith ellison he said that the evidence against each defendant is similar and multiple trials may re-traumatize eyewitnesses and family members while also running the risk of prejudicing subsequent jury pools so they also don't want this case severed so they're towing a line here because though they say that they absolutely can't go forward because of the risk of covet 19 to the public they are also saying that the judge's decision to sever these trials to give more social distancing in the courtroom is also something they absolutely cannot agree with it's i actually disagree i think from a prosecutor's perspective you're better off trying chauvin alone but that's just my opinion rather than taking on four defense attorneys but um that's their decision that's what they feel it's a stronger case um usually when we talk about appeals right it's after after a case right and it's usually the defense that appeals because prosecutors can't appeal a not guilty verdict um this is taking place beforehand is this the type of issue that can be appealed and should be appealed or has been appealed in the past under the minnesota rules 28.04 a prosecutor can't appeal a pre-trial order so we're still in the litigation phase and if the judge in the district court puts out an order that the prosecution disagrees with and feels is improper they do have the authority to file that appeal now as far as the appellate court in this case the state says that they have the inherent authority to take a case that is a critical impact case or has a critical impact either on this case or on the justice system as a whole we talked to a defense attorney in minneapolis that cortez talked to many times he's very experienced with defense work but also has argued cases in front of the appellate court he says that it's going to be a challenge for prosecutors to get the appellate court to agree that this in particular is critical when it comes to the case in this case nothing has changed with the evidence the judge didn't say those videos showing george floyd dying on the street aren't coming in the judge didn't say that other evidence isn't coming in the judge made absolutely no ruling on the evidence because the trial hasn't even started and the judge hasn't suppressed a thing so i don't see the critical impact at all they're also arguing that well the court of appeals has inherent authority to take this appeal it's clearly the biggest case in minnesota history the first case in minnesota ever to be televised but in terms of its legal act impact no there's nothing particularly unusual about the procedure or the law that's involved in this case so legally this case won't have an impact defense attorney joe tamborino they're speaking and another case that court tv has been following that may be somewhat similar or help our viewers understand when a prosecutor or when a case that's already in litigation is going to the appeals court is the nfl owner robert craft case where he was accused of solicitation and there was a massage parlor and surveillance video that prosecutors wanted to use to show that he actually did pay for sex but on the appellate level this video was thrown out ultimately that was a major impact to their case and they had to drop their case in contrast the case that we're looking at now the george floyd death case if this case is continued or if it's not it shouldn't impact how the prosecution proceeds all right let's talk about how this impacts 38 days from now march 8th because sometimes when an appeal is filed there's a stay right they freeze uh the action at the lower court which would be okay we freeze it we're not going forward until we hear what the appellate court has to say um is this what what has has the proceedings been have they been stayed um is it going to impact that march 8 date are we going to change our countdown uh clock here what's going on these are all really good questions it's maybe on a lot of them as far as a stay under the rules the 2804 that we just talked about there's an automatic stay or something that the district court has to provide once the prosecution files that notice of appeal which was done yesterday there's a five-day stay that goes into effect while these filings happen and things are sorted out after that there is a 15-day time period for the prosecutors to file their formal brief and then there's another eight days that the defense is allowed to respond if they choose to we know derek chovin is out on bond and has asked previously for continuance in this case so not likely that they will have an issue with whatever the state tries to accomplish in going to the appellate level but then after that the appellate court has 90 days to set an oral argument which has been requested by the prosecutors so we don't know that it's going to take that long for any of that but if you add all those numbers together we get much further past the march 8th date that is currently on the books for this trial so the question would be do things get stayed as they wait for the oral arguments because that's where you get into danger right because the first three things add up to 28 that gives us you know 10 plus days and then it'll be the oral argument but they did request the oral art yeah i'm doing math as we're going along i think yeah absolutely so here's the real question right and and yeah it's kovid oh yeah you know whatever whatever they're doing other trials in minneapolis by the way um what's really going on here are prosecutors ready to try this case you know vinnie they say that they are 100 percent ready to try this case they have said that in front of the judge during pre-trial hearings they've also put in writing that they are prepared they want to go forward but for the fact that this is a significant public risk and that they think that these defendants need to all be tried together now we talked to attorney tamborino about that issue as well but also how rare it is for prosecutors to be pushing so hard for a continuance and also going against the judge in this way in the language that they use accusing him of abusing discretion when they are going to the appellate court take a listen judge cahill i'm sure he's a very professional judge i'm sure he'll be able to put aside personal feelings of course but we're human beings and when you start calling people who you're about to work with wrong law breakers don't know the rules don't know the law that's got to affect you it's extremely rare because what they're asking the court to do is to look outside of the courtroom and make decision based on what's happening on the street nobody should do that the judge needs to pay attention to what is going on in the courtroom there are trials going on right now at our courthouse there was a trial last week on a murder case in our courthouse they're ready for this they are reconfiguring the 18th floor of our courthouse in order to accommodate this trial they've got many contingency plans so for the chief attorney of our state to say gee you can't have this trial because people are going to die it just doesn't make any sense and vinnie despite all of the questions about whether or not the state is ready to go forward we know the city of minneapolis and the hennepin county courthouse is absolutely getting ready for this to go forward in 38 days they are making those preparations we've had crews on the ground in downtown minneapolis and seeing those preparations that they are making not knowing what to expect but wanting to not only be safe with social distancing protocols but also to protect property we know there are going to be security measures that are going to be put in place to protect all of those who are involved in the trial but also financially they are making preparations this week the governor of minnesota made an announcement about the budget proposal and in that it includes for the upcoming year a 4.7 million dollar reimbursement for preparation for the george floyd trial specifically but also another multi-million dollar fund that is going to be for those businesses who have been impacted by the unrest take a listen we saw an unprecedented amount of uh of civil unrest some of that turned into civil disobedience and crime in in arsons and other things we're making the case that as one minnesota like we do whether it's flooding whether it's tornadoes whether it's crop damage things like that that we work together to try and make a fun to help folks out so only a few deadlines left vinny in the case and right now all systems are still go when it comes to the docket and how they are preparing for the trial on march 8th all right you want to hear my theory i have put it all together all right this is my theory of of why prosecutors are doing everything they're doing it's all about cameras they don't want america to see this trial all right they fought cameras the cameras were put in due to covid was one of the the reasons uh the cameras were allowed because the public has a right to see the trial right and they should see a trial like this so they try to get it delayed until covet is no longer an issue then they will make the argument that the camera should come out because covet is over that's what they really want that's just my personal theory based upon the motions that they filed but um they haven't appealed cameras they haven't taken that all the way to the appellate court right well they bought it yeah they did fi fight it uh by the way if you have social distancing and people are wearing masks and you're taking temperatures you're doing everything that you possibly can so uh i presume that's what they're doing at the courthouse with the trials that are taking place now anyway julie janae it's 38 days so get ready i think it's going to happen because i don't think this is an abusive discretion but we'll see what the appellate court says thanks so much thanks vinnie