Alternate Juror Speaks Out After Derek Chauvin's Conviction: 'Minnesota Has An Opportunity To Show Our Best'
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Two days after the Derek Chauvin verdict, one of the alternate jurors is speaking out.
Lisa Christensen spoke to reporters outside her home.
Even though she did not get to deliberate, she says she agrees with the verdict and says she hopes real change will come as a result.
When Judge Peter Cahill read the verdict, Christensen was watching from home.
"I was disappointed that I was an alternate," she said.
As an alternate, she sat through the whole trial but did not get to deliberate.
Like the other jurors, she had never seen the full nine minute and 29 second video before opening arguments.
"So it was overwhelming and then to see it day after day, over and over again, it never got any easier," Christensen said.
Also key for her: the eyewitnesses.
"I could feel their pain. I could feel their sadness, their guilt," she said.
For her, the most important witness was breathing expert Dr. Martin Tobin.
"He could actually point out going through the video and saying, 'Hey, at this instance right here is when Mr. Floyd lost his life,'" Christensen said.
Christensen has the added burden of living close to the Brooklyn Center Police Station. She had to rush back from court to beat the curfews for the Daunte Wright killing.
"I couldn't avoid it, it was right in my back yard," she said. "When I stepped out on my deck over here, I could see the smoke actually from the smoke grenades."
She is aware of how important the verdict is.
"Minnesota has an opportunity to show our best, come together as a whole and make some changes," she said.
And she wants to pay her own respects.
"I have not been down to 38th and Chicago at all," Christensen said. "At some point I guess I would like to go down there, that would be my closure and tell Mr. George Floyd hopefully we made him proud."
Chauvin is being held at the state prison in Oak Park Heights pending his sentencing, which will happen in about eight weeks.
He faces up to 40 years in prison.
