Two important, high profile trials will soon take place in Minneapolis regarding Mohamed Noor and Terrance Franklin.
The first is the April trial of Noor. The former Minneapolis police officer is accused of murder and manslaughter in the shooting death of Justine Damond, a White Australian citizen, on July 15, 2017.
The second trial, ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court, will deal with the violent 2013 death of Terrance Franklin at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers in the basement of a house in South Minneapolis six years ago. It was also originally scheduled for April but has since been postponed until October.
Many may pretend that they have forgotten about the death of Terrance Franklin, but it was the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Franklin’s heirs would not be denied. Who would have thought that the Supreme Court would order that Franklin have his day in court?
His father, Walter Louis Franklin II, is to be admired for the tenacious pursuit of justice for his son. And, with the court’s late 2018 order to go to trial, the quest for justice for Terrance is finally upon us.
Minneapolis is the hardened defendant pursuing the idea that the pursuit of justice for one will never be overcome by the quest of evasion by the many. The Appellate Law Firm in Washington D.C. argued the merits of the case of Terrance Franklin for his father Walter, Franklin’s suing heir and the trustee of his estate.
The city is said to have agreed to settle for millions of dollars in the case of Franklin, but as of the writing of this column, we cannot find in the archives any such offer.
These trials will provide true testing for the future of fairness and integrity in Minneapolis courts. Some felt the pursuit of justice would ever complete the cycle of lying about the brutal 2013 killing of Franklin. Finally, we will hear of the circumstances, the facts, and the last moments of Franklin’s life before he was shot and killed in that basement.
The City of Minneapolis has protected wrongdoing in the death of Franklin. It will be interesting to see how the federal trial judge rules on motions by the City to block testimony that is extremely embarrassing to the City along with the calculated actions attempted by the City to cover Franklin’s wrongful death.
It is sad that, save for the law firms and this column, the Franklin family has had to stand alone.
In the case of Noor, it is difficult to see how he will get a fair trial in the second-degree murder charge laid against him. As I have noted in previous columns, the Minnesota State Constitution states that the decision of whether to indict or not indict is the purview of the grand jury, once empaneled, not the county attorney. This was a clear violation of Noor’s constitutional rights.
Nevertheless, the cases of MohamedNoor and Terrance Franklin will test the scales of fairness and justice in our city. Both trialsshall be a demanding task in the pursuit of justice and race relations in the state of Minnesota.
Stay tuned.
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How do you compare the two? One is a man who shot and wounded officers (not disputed) the other an unarmed woman in her pajamas who called them to come help. S