Media Briefing: George Floyd, Police Conduct and Protests Across America

Even with seemingly convincing video evidence, prosecutors may struggle to convict a former Minnesota police officer charged with the third-degree murder of a man he was restraining, a Duke law scholar said June 2.

Duke law professor James Coleman Jr. said the case against Derek Chauvin may come down to a jury’s interpretation of precisely what caused the death of George Floyd, who Chauvin restrained with a knee hold for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin is white, Floyd was black, and the incident led to mass race protests in Minneapolis that subsequently spread across the country.

On June 2, Coleman and three other Duke scholars took questions from media on various aspects of race, politics, history and policing.

Meet the Faculty:

James Coleman is the John S. Bradway Professor of the Practice of Law and Co-Director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic at Duke Law School. His academic work, conducted through the Center for Criminal Justice and Professional Responsibility, centers on the legal, political, and scientific causes of wrongful convictions and how they can be prevented.

Ben Grunwald is a Duke law professor who studies criminal procedure, criminal law, constitutional law and policing. His recent research found that fired police officers are twice as likely to be fired again in a new job. Grunwald also studies effects of open-file discovery on prosecutorial power and the relationship between sentencing guidelines and sentencing fairness.

Mark Anthony Neal is the Jame B. Duke Professor of African & African American Studies, chair of the Department of African & African American Studies and founding director of the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship at Duke. He specializes in black popular culture and teaches courses on topics including black masculinity. Neal is the author of several books, including “New Black Man,” and hosts the video webcast Left of Black.

Adriane Lentz-Smith is associate professor and associate chair in Duke's department of history, where she teaches courses on the civil rights movement, black lives and modern America. A scholar of African American history and 20th century U.S. history, she is at work on a book about police violence during the twilight of the civil rights era.