Though the main jurors who convicted former Officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd have remained silent, an alternate juror has spoken out to say that she agreed with the guilty verdict.
Speaking on “CBS This Morning,” alternate juror Lisa Christenson said she would have voted guilty if given the opportunity, though she does not know if it would have been guilty on all counts.
“I felt he was guilty,” Christensen said, as reported by Fox News. “I didn’t know if it was going to be guilty on all counts, but I would have said guilty.”
Though the other three officers on the scene face a trial for their alleged misconduct during the death of George Floyd, Christensen said she believed that Chauvin was the leader.
“I felt like he was the leader, and the other officers were following his lead,” Christensen said. “I kind of felt like he wasn’t taking the warnings seriously obviously, kind of like, ‘I know what I’m doing.'”
Christensen also recalled feeling uncomfortable during the few times she locked eyes with Chauvin.
“Every time I would look up, he was right in my vision,” she said. “So we had locked eyes quite a few times, and I was pretty uncomfortable.”
As to what finally made her commit to a guilty verdict in Chauvin’s case, Christensen said that the testimony of Dr. Martin Tobin sealed the deal for her. She also criticized the defense for never really delivering on their promise.
“Dr. Tobin was the one that really did it for me. He explained everything, I understood it, down to where he said, ‘This is the moment that he lost his life.’ Really got to me,” she said.
“I just don’t understand how it got from a counterfeit $20 bill to a death,” she later added. “It kind of shocks me.”
As of this writing, Christensen is the only juror in the Chauvin case to publicly speak out after the trial. Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News also praised the jury’s decision in this case, saying they made the right call.
“Clearly, the verdict is supported by the facts,” Pirro said on “The Five” this week. “This case was extremely unusual. I’ve tried many murder cases and I’ve sat as a judge on murder cases. It is rare that you even get a picture of the victim in a murder case, other than maybe an autopsy photo. But, here, we had a living, breathing person that the jury was able to relate to every day, day after day, watching trauma of what he went through, begging for air, begging to breathe.”
“This was an emotional as well as an intellectual decision — and when I say that, make no mistake, the facts are solid on this verdict, this verdict will be held on appeal,” she said.
“But, right now, what people need to understand is that the American justice system works; it works, that people believe in Lady Justice, that if we give it a chance, it can work. And for all those people who want to burn down streets, just let the court do its job and it will survive,” Pirro concluded.
Related: Judge Pirro: Chauvin Verdict Supported By ‘Facts,’ Appeal Will Fail; ‘American Justice System Works’