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Potential jurors in the trial for former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, who is facing manslaughter charges in the April fatal shooting of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, will answer a series of questions regarding their attitudes toward law enforcement, Black Lives Matter and if they were injured or suffered property damage during any rioting over the past two years.
The 17-page Hennepin County Special Juror Questionnaire asks potential jurors to first describe what they remember from media reports about the highly publicized April 11 shooting in Brooklyn Center, which sparked rioting while tensions in the Twin Cities were already high amid the trial for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was later convicted of George Floyd’s murder.
Jury selection for Potter’s trial is scheduled to take place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7. The trial itself is expected to begin on Dec. 8 and will last for an estimated two weeks.
The questionnaire asks potential jurors whether they have seen video of Wright’ shooting death and whether they have experience or training handling a firearm or Taser. Former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon had gone against advice from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in making the decision to release body-camera footage just days after the fatal shooting. In the video, Potter is heard yelling "Taser, Taser, Taser," before shooting her handgun at Wright.
Gannon, who resigned soon after, was panned by activists for describing the shooting as "an accidental discharge" after playing out the video at a press conference. Gannon, who will likely will be called as a witness at the trial, sat down for a recent on-camera interview with Fox 9 Minneapolis.
"It ended my professional law enforcement career," Gannon, who spent 27 years with the department, said. "Of all the decisions I’ve made, which I think I totaled them up to be 100 decisions in two days, that was probably one of the easiest ones to release that video. I wanted the community to know that we were going to be honest, transparent and if it looked bad, it looked bad. But I was going to get it out there to the public because that’s what I thought my obligation as a police chief was to do."
Daunte Wright, left, was killed in an April traffic stop. Kim Potter, right, is charged with manslaughter in his killing. (Facebook/Hennepin County Sheriff)
The former chief described how demonstrators hurled soup cans, soda cans, bricks and low-level fireworks at police officers the nights after Wright’s shooting, adding, "I’ve never seen that level of violence and aggression expressed toward police officers in my whole career."
Gannon criticized Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott, who he says escorted activists to his press conference and caved under political pressure in snubbing due process for Potter. Elliott assumed command authority over the police department and another Brooklyn Center leader, City Manager Curt Boganey, was fired after also publicly advocating Potter be afforded the appropriate due process.
"I didn’t see very many of any citizens from Brooklyn Center. It turned out to be a number of activists from Minneapolis and St. Paul that the mayor had invited in basically to ridicule the way I had handled the protests the night before," Gannon said, recalling the press conference in which he showed the body camera footage. "I said the officers deserve due process like any other city employee. There’s a process. Nowhere in the policy does it say ‘you can disregard this policy if you have political pressure.’"
Other questions ask potential jurors if they or someone close to them participated in any demonstrations or marches related to policing in the Minneapolis-area over the past two years and if so, whether they carried a sign and what message was depicted on the sign. Potential jurors are asked whether they or someone they know got injured or suffer property damage during the demonstrations.
Recipients are asked to explain whether they believe demonstrations have positively or negatively impacted their community and whether they or someone close to them have supported or advocated for or against police reform. Potential jurors are asked about their news consumption, whether it’s primarily through radio, television, online sources or social media, and what podcasts they listen to.
As is standard with jury questionnaires, recipients are asked whether they interact with law enforcement regularly as a part of their work or whether they’ve been arrested or a victim of a crime.
The questionnaire also asks how favorable or unfavorable the recipient is the Black Lives Matter, as well as Blue Lives Matter. Potential jurors were asked to rank how strongly they disagree or agree with several statements, including, "Discrimination is not as bad as the media makes it out to be," "Black people and other minorities do not receive equal treatment to whites in the criminal justice system," "Police in this country treat white people and black people equally," and "I support defunding the police."
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The release of the questionnaire comes about a week after the judge handling Potter’s trial recently reversed course from an earlier August ruling and decided to allow livestreaming of the hearings. Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu cited the state of the coronavirus pandemic for her reversal and stressed that her decision to now allow the livestream was not influenced by protesters who just days before had shown up outside her downtown Minneapolis condominium.
