5 takeaways from our interview with Peter Cahill, the judge who presided over Derek Chauvin’s trial

Four years ago, Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presided over one of the most significant trials in modern America.

Like the crime itself, the trial was filmed and broadcast. Millions tuned in over six weeks to watch live feed of jury selection, attorney arguments and witness and expert testimony to determine whether Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, should be held liable for the killing of George Floyd. When the guilty verdict arrived, 23 million were watching.

Often at the center of the trial, Cahill became a recognizable figure — even behind a COVID-19 mask — sternly warning public officials to “stop talking” about the case, refereeing the daily proceedings and eventually rendering the state’s prison sentence to Chauvin. Behind the scenes, he and his staff navigated the security concerns and logistics of Minnesota’s most public criminal trial in history.

For the five-year anniversary of Floyd’s killing, Cahill, who has recently retired, sat down with the Minnesota Star Tribune for his first media interview looking back at the case. You can read the full story here. Below are five takeaways from the conversation.

Cahill’s decision to broadcast the trial bucked Minnesota’s longstanding ban on cameras in the courtroom, paving the way for the state Supreme Court in 2024 to expand visual and audio recording for other trials and hearings. But it only happened because of the extraordinary circumstances presented by a global pandemic. Social distancing precautions allowed six people to attend in person, and Cahill said he worried this would run afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s rules on a public trial.

“The six seats were designated for family members,” Cahill said. “So is that a public trial? I don’t think so.”

Cahill issued the order in November 2020 — still the height of the pandemic — to stream the trial, citing distancing restrictions combined with international interest in the case. Hundreds of thousands began tuning in daily at jury selection. “I thought, no one will trust the result — from either end — if they don’t see what’s going on,” Cahill said in the interview. “All of us hate the spotlight, and we’d rather just do our jobs, but I certainly don’t regret it.”

In addition to wrapping the courthouse in barbed wire and posting National Guard soldiers around the perimeter, those who played critical roles in the trial required extra security. Jurors drove to satellite sites every morning, where they were picked up by deputies and driven in vans to the courthouse. After closing arguments, the jury was taken to a secure site in the suburbs to deliberate.

Cahill said he bought a new security system for his home, including surveillance cameras, and local law enforcement patrolled his neighborhood several times a day. He slept with a metal pipe under his bed as a last resort.

Cahill received enough mail from critics to fill two boxes, which he gave to the Minnesota Historical Society when he retired in January as part of a larger donation of artifacts related to the trial. He also got hundreds of voicemails. Cahill said the messages ran the gamut, including a group of pastors who condemned him to hell for not giving a longer sentence. Others lambasted him for not pardoning Chauvin (which a judge has no authority to do). He tried to keep his personal address private, but at least one person found it and sent him a letter asking for autographs of the trial team.

Cahill said he and his staff occasionally performed dramatic readings of the mail to lighten the mood. Not all of the mail was critical. He said he got a letter from Lance Ito, the judge who presided over the O.J. Simpson case, wishing him “peace and wisdom.”

Cahill wanted a “good, nice, clean trial,” but the world had other plans. Politicians, including President Joe Biden, spoke publicly about the case. As the jury was being seated, the Minneapolis City Council approved a $27 million settlement to Floyd’s family. Minneapolis was also ramping up for a vote on whether to replace the Police Department with a new model. “It did not help that people were saying ‘defund the police’ — all these idiots on the Minneapolis City Council,” said Cahill. In the middle of the trial, Brooklyn Center police officer Kimberly Potter shot and killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop, reigniting protests and rioting and prompting the deployment of the National Guard. Judges usually tell jurors to avoid any news about the case they’re on. This time, Cahill said, he told jurors to actively avoid the news altogether.

Cahill spent several hours talking to jurors after the verdict and met with them later on Zoom. He said jurors took their duty seriously, carefully weighing the evidence and testimony presented at trial. He dismissed a popular theory in conservative media that jurors were intimidated by protesters into reaching the guilty verdict.

“They realized that there are crazies on both sides,” he said of jurors’ security concerns, noting that the trial began a few months after the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

He said the revisionist history and allegations that Chauvin didn’t get a fair trial are part of a troubling trend of attacks on the integrity of the judicial system. “We had 12 jurors from a variety of backgrounds who gave it good consideration. And I bet if you interviewed them, they’d say they don’t regret their decision.”