The issue of race looms over the trial of a white former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death last May of George Floyd, a Black man. The racial makeup of the jury being chosen now to decide Derek Chauvin’s fate is being closely scrutinized. Attorneys are forbidden by law from rejecting potential jurors solely due to their race. But veteran observers of the legal process say there are plenty of ways attorneys can indirectly try to shape the jury’s makeup, including on race, if they think it will help their case.
