Media: Body camera video in Floyd case should be made public

MINNEAPOLIS — A coalition of news media outlets is seeking public access to body camera video recorded by former officers charged in the death of George Floyd, while attorneys for the officers are asking that a gag order in the case be lifted, according to court documents filed Monday. Walker said news media outlets want the footage immediately available for copying “so that it may be widely viewed not just by those who have the time and wherewithal to visit the courthouse during a global pandemic but by all members of the public concerned about the administration of justice in one of the most important, and most-watched, cases this State — perhaps this country — has ever seen.” Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed, died May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, said that while the court may have a legitimate interest in reducing pretrial publicity to avoid tainting a jury pool, in the last several weeks Chauvin has been called a murderer and some public officials have referred to the case as a “murder.” Nelson argued that after more than six weeks of one side of the story, prosecutors are the only ones who have benefited from pretrial publicity. Walker wrote that bystander video showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck has been widely circulated, and there is no reason to believe that making the body camera footage easily accessible to the public and media would materially impact the fairness of a trial.