The judge who presided over the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last year says ensuring racial justice in the courts is key to maintaining public confidence in the American legal system.
At a conference in Nevada on Monday, Peter Cahill offered candid advice to his colleagues on managing high-profile cases. Among other things, he asked his fellow judges to find ways to manage stress, keep comments from the bench to a minimum and stay off Twitter.
A Hennepin County judge since 2007, Cahill said “equal justice under the law,” a phrase emblazoned on courthouse walls, remains more of a goal than an achievement. But pursuing that goal is critical to ensuring Americans trust the judicial system, he stressed.
“I think we are improving. But we’re a long way from being able to say we’ve done it and rest on our laurels.”
Cahill spoke to judges from around the country at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada.
In an hour-long conversation, he said some of the most egregious judicial failures involved issues with racial justice at their core. They include the infamous Dred Scott decision and the Korematsu case nine decades later that allowed the continued wartime incarceration of Japanese-Americans.
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Cahill urged his fellow judges to keep racial justice in mind at all times — even in matters as small as a speeding ticket.
“If you’re white, an old white guy like me, and everybody else in the courtroom is an old white guy, even the defendant in the speeding case, you have to figure out, am I treating this person in the same way that is younger, a different age, a different ethnicity, a different race? You have to do this over and over again.”
The killing of George Floyd sparked racial justice protests around the world. Although Floyd was black and Derek Chauvin is white, Cahill said race was not part of the courtroom evidence. As with most homicide trials, he said this case focused on the victim’s cause of death and the defendant’s intent.
Minnesota courts largely ban television coverage, but Cahill ordered an exception for the Chauvin trial because of the pandemic and high interest. The judge said Monday that ensuring public confidence in the outcome was also part of his decision.
“I was convinced that if we didn’t televise that trial, the results, no matter which way it went, would never be accepted by the community.”
Cahill gave advice to his judges on how to manage their courtrooms, particularly in high-profile cases. A tip: don’t talk too much. Just before playing a video from Chauvin’s trial, he asked the audience to raise their hands “when you think I should have stopped talking.”
As he watched himself on video talking to a prosecutor, Cahill was quick to raise his hand.
He later added that when he sentenced Chauvin to 22 1/2 years in prison, he deliberately kept his comments brief. Instead, the judge issued a lengthy memo so the public could understand his reasoning without relying on sound bites.
Throughout the trial, Cahill said he only slept an hour or two at a time. He urged judges to call a short break if the stress in the courtroom becomes too much.
“You can say ‘let’s take a five-minute break.’ What remains unsaid is ‘why should I pace the hall so I can burn off all this energy’ because I want to kill that lawyer right now.
Judges should not seek outside approval for their decisions, especially from news coverage and especially from social media, Cahill advised. One day during the trial he looked at Twitter.
“Yes,” he said. “Convinced me that Twitter is a place cut for one thing.”
Cahill said being a judge means managing misery every day — and the vicarious trauma of violent cases takes its toll. After Chauvin’s trial, Hennepin County Chief Judge Toddrick Barnette sent him home for two weeks. The court offered counseling for all staff and special hearings for black members.
Cahill says he is taking another break before overseeing the trial later this month of J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao; the two former officers are accused of aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder.
