WATCH: First Chauvin Juror to Speak Out Says Protests, Racial Climate Not a Consideration in Verdict

Brandon Mitchell — juror 52 in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, and the first to speak out on television — said that the racial climate was not a consideration in the jury’s verdict.

Mr. Mitchell gave his first televised interview on Thursday morning’s edition of ABC News’ Good Morning America, and began by sending his condolences to the family of George Floyd.

Anchor Robin Roberts asked Mitchell to describe the deliberations, and whether there was one juror who held things up.

Mitchell replied that there was one juror who was “I wouldn’t say slowing us down, but was being delicate with the process more so, was just kind of hung up on a few words within the instructions,” but the others were able to clarify the language through discussion.

“There are some people who believe that the racial climate and the protests in the streets may have impacted the deliberations,” Roberts said, and asked “Was that ever discussed, and was that an issue at all?”

“We weren’t watching the news, so we don’t know what was going on,” Mitchell said, and added “We were really just locked in on the case. And there was so much stress coming from the case, I mean those things are so secondary because you’re literally, throughout the trial, you’re watching somebody die on a daily basis, so that stress alone is enough to take your mind away from whatever’s going on outside of the four walls of the courtroom.”

“I mean that was not even, that wasn’t even something that was in any of our minds, I don’t think so,” Mitchell said.

After the verdict, many conservative political and media figures tried to blame the verdict on the threat of unrest that never materialized.

Watch the interview above via ABC News.

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