Dershowitz: Chauvin Jurors Were ‘Under Enormous Pressure’ — ‘That’s Not the Way Our System Is Supposed to Operate’
Friday on FNC’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz questioned how factors outside the courtroom, including remarks made by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), impacted the jury in the Derek Chauvin trial.
Dershowitz argued those influences were not how the system was supposed to operate.
“There’s no reason why the judge shouldn’t have called in every single juror after Congresswoman Waters made her statements,” he said. “The judge said it was giving you an appellate issue. Why not call him the jurists and ask them do you know about this statement? Have you heard about it? Are you afraid? Do you have the kind of fear that if you come out with a verdict that will not please someone, it could cause riots? I have absolutely zero doubt that jurors in that jury room were worried about their own welfare if they would have come to a conclusion that murder was not committed. If they had come to a verdict either of manslaughter or not guilty, they would worry that their own welfare, their children, their businesses, their schools, their neighborhoods would be burned down.”
“And by the way, they weren’t the only ones who were worried,” Dershowitz continued. “Every police chief, every mayor, the President of the United States said that the jurors were under enormous pressure. That’s not the way our system is supposed to operate. Jurors are supposed to be isolated, insulated. They should have been segregated. They should have been kept in a separate hotel room during the entire process and never should have been allowed to hear what people like Maxine Waters were threatening.”
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