The loneliest lawyer in America
Eric Nelson is representing one of the most hated men in the country.
The Derek Chauvin trial starts in Minneapolis today, and most of us - no matter where we stand on issues of racism and criminal justice - are praying that we don’t have a repeat of 2020.
As a lawyer I should be hoping for a fair trial in which the truth comes out and justice is done. In practice, I’ll come right out and admit that I am hoping and praying for a murder conviction. Not only because I think Chauvin deserves punishment for the killing of George Floyd - whether or not racism was at its root - but because we’re still recovering from what happened in 1968 v. 2.0.
The jury members - a racially mixed group - have all pledged to base their decision on the law and the facts of the case. But I suspect they will keep in the back of their minds what might happen to them if they vote to acquit, especially in an age where your name can become a Twitter hashtag very quickly.
In a way, my worst nightmare is actually a situation where Chauvin is correctly acquitted. If he is convicted we can breathe again. If he is acquitted despite facts pointing overwhelmingly to guilt, I can share in everyone’s outrage. But I really don’t want to find myself in a situation where I’m trying to explain the presumption of innocence to angry online mobs.
That would be nothing compared to Eric Nelson’s job, defending one of the most hated men in America, and in the process risking becoming one a hate figure in his own right:
The Court TV cameras in the daily drama known as the State of Minnesota v. Derek Chauvin have given a starring role to a little-known criminal defense lawyer, Eric Nelson, who is representing the former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death.
Inside the courtroom, coronavirus-related social distancing rules limit the number of people present on each side. But Nelson still appears outnumbered ahead of the formal opening of Chauvin’s trial on Monday.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has assembled a deep bench to help make the state’s case, including a former federal prosecutor, a prominent Supreme Court advocate and a corporate lawyer who argued the state’s first posthumous pardon last year for a Black man wrongly convicted of raping a White woman a century ago.
On the other side is Nelson, with a legal assistant. Even Hennepin County District Judge Peter A. Cahill has commented on the apparent imbalance.
[…]
Outside the courthouse, Chauvin’s attorney, wearing a mask and often walking alone, has routinely gone unrecognized by the protesters who gather at the scene and the local media, many of whom had never heard of Nelson before he was picked to represent Chauvin last summer.
But his new role has attracted attention, much of it negative. During a discussion about the possibility of sequestering the jury in a pretrial hearing in September, the judge said he had received “a barrage of calls” seeking to influence the outcome of the case. The defense attorneys for all four defendants — who were being tried jointly at the time — indicated they or their clients had also received phone calls or messages, almost all threatening.
“There have been threats to myself, threats to my colleagues,” Nelson said, telling Cahill he had logged over 1,000 emailed threats.
Even other Minnesota attorneys named Eric Nelson were getting threats, he added. One, a Twin Cities divorce lawyer, added a disclaimer to his website explaining he was not Chauvin’s attorney. “I wish my parents had named me Thor instead,” he wrote, linking to the website for Chauvin’s attorney.
Whatever your feelings about Chauvin - and bearing in mind that we haven’t seen how Nelson will conduct his defense yet - we should be grateful that there are people willing to stand up for those whose liberty is at risk of being taken away by the state. Often, the punishment is legally and morally justified. But if the state can railroad a bad person on questionable grounds, they can do it to a good person.
Incidentally, I am often asked how I can defend people whom I know or strongly suspect to be guilty. My answer is that it’s much easier than representing someone whom I believe to be innocent. If I know my client is guilty and he is convicted, justice was done. If my guilty client is acquitted, that is on the prosecution for not making its case.
But having the fate of an innocent person largely in your hands? These are the cases that keep you up at night.
Good luck to all of the lawyers in the Chauvin case, and I hope and pray the jurors do their job correctly and let justice be done in this infuriating, heartbreaking case.
It’s a story that’s played out dozens of times, ever since rock music pioneers like Dewey Cox shocked people with provocative songs about holding hands:
A performer, usually gifted in the art of self-promotion (and only occasionally with any musical talent) releases a song or video deliberately designed to shock and outrage parents everywhere.
The video for Lil Nas X’s new single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” has everything: alien sex, snake-licking, pastel Marie Antoinette wigs, Greek references to Plato’s Symposium that a grand total of three people watching the video will be able to read and understand. But perhaps its most prominent character is the Prince of Darkness himself: Satan, whom Lil Nas X seduces with a lap-dance in the video after riding a stripper pole to hell, then steals his horns.
Conservative politicians take the bait and grandstand about how this filth is corrupting our previous children.
There’s a backlash to the backlash, with more liberal-minded people insisting that the provocateur is a brave teller of truths standing against societal hypocrisy and an icon for freedom of expression.
Everyone kind of forgets about it after a few months, when they realize the song that caused all this controversy kind of sucks. (You know what Madonna song never, ever gets played anymore? “Justify My Love.”)
This, and then step 6 is selling insurance or something.
Actually, in 2021 we can probably add a step 3(a), when someone finds out that the shocking provocative video featured an image of Mohammed or that the performer posted some racist tweets in high school or something. And then lefties and righties switch their positions on the subject.
Lewis Hamilton is the Tom Brady of Formula One racing. You’re soooooooooo tired of him winning all the time, but then he shows you why you have to grudgingly concede the best in the business.
At yesterday’s F1 season opener in Bahrain, he drove out of his freaking mind to hold off a charging Max Verstappen and won by less than a second.
Yes, Verstappen passed Hamilton but was forced to let him back ahead after he left the track. But the greatest sportsmen always find a way to win - whether it’s the tuck rule or taking advantage of an opponent’s mistake.
Either way, Hamilton’s driving after that was a master class. I’ve sat through many boring F1 parades in my time, but then you get a battle like this between a seven-time World Champion and an almost-certain future World Champion, and you’re reminded what drew you to the sport to begin with.
As for those of us who weren’t blessed with driving talent, at least there’s Nikita Mazepin showing that you can make it in F1 despite being terrible, as long as you have Russian oligarch parents who can bankroll your desperate backmarker team.
"Especially in an age where your name can become a Twitter hashtag very quickly"......... that's an important point. We may not be ruled by Big Brother, but popular opinion certainly seems well on its way to being able to influence things that it should not influence, such as (potentially) court decisions.
I'd put the chances of China's diplomatic and PR teams watching the George Floyd/ Chauvin trial, and having something to say to attack the American justice system each and every day are at or about 100%.