Excargodog

Yeah, I actually think the Acquittal of three of the officers is virtually a slam-dunk. When Chauvin was initially charged it was for third degree murder. The main reason to up the charge to second degree murder - a very questionable call, is that without that change none of the other three officers could be charged with being accomplices, since third degree murder indicates no intent, merely a ‘depraved’ lack of concern for human life, whereas any accomplice charge requires the main perp to INTEND a crime and the accomplices to cooperate with that intent.

While upping the charge and charging the other three may have made the politicians happy, it’s going to make the prosecution very difficult, and the political advantage that was obtained by charging the other three cops - two of them rookies with only about a week on the job - as accessories to murder threatens to backfire badly politically when they are acquitted. And people also tend to forget that the default is innocent. If even one of the 12 jurors is not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Chauvin, rather than the toxic levels of Meth, fentanyl, and carfentanyl, and significant vascular disease, killed Floyd, then it’s a hung jury.
That will raise tempers all by itself, even if there is a retrial.

And speaking of change of venue, every politician in MSP has poisoned the well on this one. They’ll probably have to go to a different county, perhaps even a far more conservative one than Hennepin (and almost all are more conservative than Hennepin). That won’t sit well with the BLM movement either.

Nor does it help that the Attorney General, who is now at least nominally in charge of the prosecution, only practiced law for three years before becoming a politician and political hack For the next 27 years, and none of those three years was as a prosecutor.