Afternoon Briefs: Chauvin found guilty in George Floyd's death; why red flag law wasn't used against FedEx gunman
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin listens as the verdict is read in his trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd on April 20 at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. Photo from the Associated Press/Court TV Pool.
Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in George Floyd’s death
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of all charges in the 2020 death of George Floyd. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin, who is white, was convicted for killing Floyd, who is black, by kneeling on his neck last May. In a statement, ABA President Patricia Lee Refo said the association “respects the decision of the Minneapolis jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin while emphasizing that a single verdict is neither an indictment of all law enforcement nor a solution to the systemic inequities in our justice system.” (CNN, the New York Times)
Red flag law wasn’t used against FedEx gunman
Indiana’s red flag law wasn’t used to prevent firearms purchases by the gunman who killed eight people at an Indianapolis FedEx facility, despite a complaint that by his mother months before. Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said Monday police seized a shotgun from shooter Brandon Scott Hole after his mother reported that he might try to kill himself. The family didn’t seek return of the weapon, and prosecutors thought that they had achieved the result that they wanted without filing a red flag petition. Mears also said the law gives prosecutors only 14 days to gather evidence of mental instability or a violent propensity, and it’s difficult to gather needed records within that time period. If prosecutors tried and failed, the shotgun would have to be returned. “We weren’t willing to take that risk,” Mears said. (CNN, the Indianapolis Star)
Generation Z law students value flexibility
Sixty percent of surveyed Generation Z law students said they wanted the flexibility to decide whether to work in or out of the office, while 52% said they would take a cut in pay to get geographic flexibility. But only 6% said they wanted to work remotely all the time. The survey, by legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, gathered responses from 240 law students attending top 25 law schools who were born between 1995 and 2000. (Law.com, Law360, Bloomberg Law)
ACLU asks SCOTUS to allow release of foreign surveillance opinions
The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the First Amendment provides a qualified right of public access to significant opinions by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Congress created the court in 1978 to authorize electronic surveillance in foreign intelligence investigations. Those filing the brief, besides the ACLU, are the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University; the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School; and Theodore Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general. (Knight First Amendment Institute press release, the cert petition, the New York Times)
