Free Republic

Finding Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd was a "no-brainer", one of the jurors in the trial has said. Brandon Mitchell said he and the 11 other jurors could have completed their deliberations within the 10 hours they actually took - and might have finished in just 60 minutes. They did not need much thinking time, the 31-year-old high school basketball coach added. "For the most part, we did go in and come straight out," he told NBC's Today. The jury was unanimous in finding Chauvin guilty last week. The former police officer could now spend decades in jail.

Oliver Wendell Holmes correctly pointed out: due process simply cannot be achieved for any defendant in the presence of hostile crowds ready for violence if a verdict of not guilty is rendered. The ACLU, if the shoe were on the other foot, would be demanding a new trial — if the defendant were black, and white crowds were demanding a conviction or else. But the ACLU is no longer a neutral civil liberties organization. It has become a partisan claque that espoused due process for "me but not for thee." Real civil libertarians, who demand due process for all, including...