Eugene Robinson on Chauvin Trial: I’ve Been Disappointed and Surprised So Many Times

EXCERPT:

ROBINSON: "It’s never over until it’s over, Jeff. And it’s over when the jury comes back with a verdict or without a verdict. And so I’m like the Rev, I’ve been disappointed and surprised so many times that I think it’s unwise to take anything for granted. That said, this is an overwhelming case. And I thought the testimony yesterday by Dr. Tobin, he was — he was like the — you know, the witness you would design in central casting. He was so effective with his illustrations and having the jurors touch their own necks to feel the anatomical features that he was talking about, and there were some reports inside the courtroom that the jurors did it, getting the jury on his side and involved in the story he was telling. I thought that was — I had never seen anything like that in a courtroom before. I thought it was incredibly effective. You add to that the fact that, yes, we saw the police chief of Minneapolis come in and say this was unacceptable. We saw other Minneapolis officers come and say this was completely — what Chauvin did was completely out of line with what he had been trained to do, what he was supposed to do, what the proper policy is, what the law says."