On Monday a Minnesota judge delayed the state trial for former police officers Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng for their role in George Floyd’s killing.
Thao and Kueng were set to go to trial together on June 13, ABC News reports. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ordered that the trial be delayed until Jan. 5, 2023. Jury selection was scheduled to begin next week but will now be rescheduled, CNN reports.
The two former officers are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. They have pleaded not guilty.
Thao, Kueng and former officer Thomas Lane were found guilty of violating George Floyd’s civil rights in a federal court in February. Judge Cahill believes that the federal ruling, along with coverage of Lane’s guilty plea in May, would make an unfair trial, Reuters reports.
“These two recent events and the publicity surrounding them are significant in [that] it could make it more difficult for jurors to presume Thao, 35, and Kueng, 28, innocent of the state charges,” Cahill wrote in his ruling, according to ABC News.
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