Former Minneapolis Officers Request No Broadcast Trial In Floyd Death

Attorneys for the three former officers charged in the death of George Floyd claim some witnesses won't testify if the trial is broadcast live.

Attorneys for three former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd's death asked a judge Thursday to bar their upcoming trial from being livestreamed, saying some witnesses won't testify if the proceedings are broadcast. Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao are scheduled to stand trial next March on charges of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s May 2020 death. Their co-defendant, Derek Chauvin, was convicted in April of murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison, after weeks of proceedings that marked the first time in Minnesota that a criminal trial was livestreamed in its entirety. Before Chauvin’s trial, attorneys for all four men requested the trials be broadcast, but Lane and Kueng recently backtracked, with their attorneys saying that the “worldwide publicity” from televised coverage of Chauvin’s trial “crushed” their clients’ right to a fair trial.