By: Alyssa Wilson

Jury selection in the trial of Derek Chauvin begins on March 8.

Chauvin is the former police officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

The process will include an interview of 12 potential jurors speaking to prosecutors and the defense.

In Minneapolis, community organizers are vowing to peacefully protest during the trial while fences, barbed wire and other barricades have been put up around public buildings.

BNC legal analyst Candace Kelley joined Start Your Day with Sharon Reed and Mike Hill to discuss the possibilities in the upcoming trial.

According to Kelley, potential jurors filled out a questionnaire, but the interview is important for the prosecutors and defense attorneys to read body language.

She says prosecutors will be looking for Black jurors because they understand what it means to be Black in America.

“This is as much as it is about George Floyd’s death as it is about race and this type of reckoning that we’re having with race in America at this point,” she said.

Reed asked how the legal teams involved would be able to navigate people who may have ulterior motives and Kelley said the prosecutors and defense attorneys are going to have to weed out the good versus bad.

Protests erupted in multiple countries after Floyd was killed and Kelley said this is “…not the trial of the century, but the trial of the probably 100 years to come.”

Citing previous cases, including the beating of Rodney King where video evidence failed to lead to a conviction, Hill asked what else the prosecution will rely on.

Kelley says the important distinction, in this case, is about Chauvin’s intent.

“Even though the tapes before certainly have not played out well in court, this is a much longer tape from beginning to end, and we get to see this officer’s face front and center. . .”

Kelley also added that it is important that the prosecution humanizes George Floyd and reminds jurors that he was a person who had a family.

BNC will have special coverage of the trial on Monday.

Tune in to BNC’s George Floyd Death: Justice on Trial special coverage with @SharonReedLive. Monday, March 8th 9PM ET/8PM CT pic.twitter.com/NJPsE1ViER

— BNC (@BNCNews) March 4, 2021