​On May 1, 2020 16-year-old Cornelius Frederick died after being restrained for throwing a sandwich at Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a youth correctional facility run by the for-profit Sequel facility management corporation. We have now learned that an autopsy confirmed that Cornelius died as a result of asphyxiation during the restraint. Several children from Hennepin County were confined at Lakeside Academy when Cornelius was killed. In fact, Hennepin County frequently placed children at Lakeside Academy on juvenile delinquency matters, despite a publicly documented history of violations substantiated by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Although Hennepin County has since removed all children from this facility, this response is not sufficient.
 
Cornelius Frederick should be alive today. His death at the hands of staff at a youth correctional facility must be a wake-up call for Hennepin County juvenile justice stakeholders at all decision points – from pre-arrest to post-disposition. George Floyd was restrained, asphyxiated, and murdered by Minneapolis police officers for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill. Cornelius Frederick threw a sandwich at a youth correctional facility. Every child currently placed in a correctional facility is at imminent risk. Hennepin County cannot allow this to continue.
 
It is well past time to end the detrimental practice of removing our children from our communities and confining them in correctional facilities under the pretense of providing therapeutic treatment. Cornelius Frederick’s death is not an isolated tragedy of one child in one facility, but an extreme manifestation of the unsafe circumstances that children commonly experience when removed from their homes by the juvenile justice system. Children in correctional facilities are routinely subjected to maltreatment through bullying, inappropriate restraint, and other forms of physical abuse. Many children end up cycling through multiple correctional facilities, pointing to a very basic failure in their stated purpose.

The National Lawyers Guild and Legal Rights Center's Legal Support Line will stop being staffed on June 13, 2020 until the need arises again. If you need protest-related legal assistance, please leave a voicemail for the National Lawyers Guild at 612-444-2654 and we will follow up. Give us a call if you also anticipate the Legal Support Line may need to be activated again for future actions. For other legal needs, check out the following numbers for partner organizations in the Twin Cities. ​

The Legal Rights Center is heading up an effort to get more legal information to protesters and the public regarding their rights related to curfew, protesting, how best to protect their rights when interacting with police and other important legal topics. A growing list of more than fifty local volunteer lawyers and law students have expressed interest and begun to attend workshops to become Know Your Rights Trainers for protesters and the public. Know Your Rights Trainers are then distilling the most pertinent information into quick five to ten minute presentations for protesters. Trainers are also handing out flyers with this information in print, as well as providing resources if protesters are cited and/or arrested. Trainers are easily identifiable at protests - just look for the bright yellow trainer shirts below.  

The Legal Rights Center and American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota are grateful to Attorney General Keith Ellison for filing stronger and legally justified charges against former officer Derek Chauvin, and for bringing charges against all of the officers involved in the murder of George Floyd.
The Attorney General Wednesday filed second-degree murder charges against former Minneapolis Police Officer Chauvin, and aiding and abetting second-degree murder against the other three officers, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Keung and Tou Thao.
The LRC and ACLU-MN believe strongly that the higher charges against Chauvin and the charges against the other three officers are legally justified and necessary. It’s important to note that aiding and abetting second-degree murder is a very serious charge that carries the same potential sentence as second-degree murder. It considers the three officers to be as legally culpable as Chauvin.
The ACLU-MN and Legal Rights Center had called on the Governor to appoint the Attorney General. The initial third-degree murder charge brought against Chauvin by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office was grossly inadequate, and the lack of charges against any of the other officers was inexcusable.
We continue to call for an independent prosecution housed in the Attorney General’s Office not associated with the Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office.
We will continue working for justice for George Floyd, and rooting out racism in our policing and criminal-legal system.

The Legal Rights Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota have grave concerns about the legal sufficiency of the criminal complaint charging former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin with Third Degree Murder in the death of George Floyd. The charging of Third Degree Murder instead of First or Second Degree Murder may prove to be legally defective and allow Chauvin to evade the punishment warranted for his actions. 
 
The issuance of a potentially defective murder charge, combined with the delay by the Hennepin County Attorney’s office in charging Chauvin and the other involved officers, further strengthens and validates demands for appointment of a special prosecutor to handle charges arising from this tragic event and its aftermath. Both the LRC and ACLU-MN fully support and join these demands.
 
The complaint filed by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charging former officer Chauvin with Third Degree Murder is potentially deficient on its face and therefore incurably defective because, under Minnesota law, Third Degree Murder applies only when the acts of the defendant were committed without regard to their effect on any particular person, and not when the actions were directed to a specific person. Minnesota courts have repeatedly ruled that to support a charge of Third Degree Murder, the offender’s actions need to be “eminently dangerous to more than one person.”[1]  This has been the law in Minnesota since 1896 and includes numerous State Supreme Court decisions stretching all the way to the present saying the same thing.
 
The relevant facts in this case are clear. Officer Chauvin's actions were directed solely towards George Floyd and were not “eminently dangerous” to anyone other than George Floyd, although Chauvin and the other officers may well have been aware that their actions would ultimately spark the public outrage that has ravaged the Twin Cities ever since. The charge for Third Degree Murder therefore potentially will not stick.
 
It is inconceivable that experienced, professional Hennepin County prosecutors did not recognize the potential flaws in the Third Degree Murder charge. Charging Third Degree Murder instead of charging Second Degree murder or seeking an indictment for First Degree murder only serves to further undermine community trust in the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. This is why the LRC and ACLU-MN demand the IMMEDIATE amendment of the murder charge and appointment of a Special Prosecutor.


[1] State v. Stewart, 276 N.W.2d 51, 54 (Minn. 1979) (emphasis added).