Prosecutor In Derek Chauvin Murder Trial Tapped For Federal Judgeship
President Biden on Wednesday (June 15) nominated seven new federal judicial nominees that included a key prosecutor who helped convict former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Biden tapped attorney Jerry W. Blackwell for a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, a White House statement said. He’s a founding partner of the law firm Blackwell Burke where he has worked since 2006.
According to the Associated Press, Blackwell worked pro bono on the Chauvin case. A viral video showed Chauvin pressing his knee on the neck of Floyd who was handcuffed and face down on the pavement during a May 25, 2020, arrest. Chauvin and other officers at the scene ignored Floyd gasping for air and telling them that he couldn’t breathe.
After a nationally broadcast trial, on April 20, 2021, a jury convicted Chauvin on all counts of murder and manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison and later pleaded guilty to a federal count of violating Floyd’s rights.
In Blackwell’s closing statement, he delivered a memorable response to the defense attorney’s claim that Floyd’s enlarged heart contributed to his death.
“You were told … that Mr. Floyd died because his heart was too big. … The truth of the matter is that the reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr. Chauvin’s heart was too small,” the AP quoted Blackwell in his rebuttal.
Blackwell was also involved in the 2020 posthumous pardon for Max Mason, 100 years after the Mason, who was Black, was wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman in Duluth, Minnesota.
Irene Tusken accused Mason and five other Black circus workers of sexually assaulting her at gunpoint in June 1920, CNN reported. The police arrested them even though Tusken’s family doctor examined her and found no evidence of a rape. An angry white mob lynched three of the men arrested with Mason.
Blackwell earned his law degree in 1987 and his B.S. in 1984, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
