The lawyer making opening arguments for the prosecution is Jerry W. Blackwell, a lawyer who has represented a collection of huge firms and joined the legal professional normal’s workplace only for this case on a professional bono foundation, that means he is not going to be paid.
In personal follow, Mr. Blackwell has represented firms together with Walmart, 3M Company and General Mills, according to the website for his firm, Blackwell Burke, which relies in Minnesota. He has defended firms in opposition to lawsuits by individuals who mentioned they have been injured by asbestos, benzene and different doubtlessly dangerous chemical compounds. He has additionally represented firms in circumstances involving claims of false promoting.
Mr. Blackwell is understood for his potential to untangle sophisticated authorized points for jurors, the web site says, which may very well be very important in the prosecution of Mr. Chauvin, the place jurors could have to consider the parts of second-degree and third-degree homicide.
Last June, Mr. Blackwell won a posthumous pardon for Max Mason, a Black circus employee who was wrongly convicted of rape in 1920, months after three of his colleagues have been lynched on account of the false accusations. Keith Ellison, the Minnesota legal professional normal overseeing the prosecution of Mr. Chauvin, had encouraged Mr. Blackwell to apply for the pardon, and he brought him on board for Mr. Chauvin’s trial a month later.
Mr. Blackwell earned his regulation diploma from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1987, his web site says, and was considered one of the founders of the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers.
