A key witness in the state’s case against Derek Chauvin has filed a notice that he plans to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights, meaning he will most likely not testify during Derek Chauvin’s trial. The witness, Morries Lester Hall, was seated in the passenger seat of Mr. Floyd’s car when Minneapolis police officers approached him about using a counterfeit $20 bill to pay for cigarettes at Cup Foods. During the trial, Mr. Hall has appeared in the police body camera footage shown by the prosecution. “If called to testify he will invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination,” the motion, filed on Wednesday by the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office, said. In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Hall said that Mr. Floyd had tried to defuse the tensions with the police and had in no way resisted arrest.

Source: New York Times April 01, 2021 15:11 UTC