The missing element in the George Floyd murder trial

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As a former prosecutor and criminal law professor in Minneapolis, I am fielding a lot of calls about the upcoming trial of Derek Chauvin, who is accused of murdering George Floyd in this city. The media wants to know about the charges, the jury selection, the effects of televising the case and what the lawyers might do. No one has asked me about the very thing that makes this case important: The racially disproportionate treatment of Black Americans by the police. The trial will be a cyclone circling around the unmoving mass at its center — race — that silently drives the fury around it.