we have msnbc special coverage for the murder trial. right now, the trial, the killing of george floyd. you will see new reporting of what will happen in this trial, what you know legally, we'll see mistakes and what we've already learned about who's on the jury, as the nation reflects on many civil rights challenges and new responses to a mass shooting and possible hate crime. later tonight we have a report on a racial double standard.

tomorrow's trial provides a possible reckoning for one of last year's defining moments. george floyd was, simply put, an unknown, regular and innocent civilian. his slow, brutal killing, eight minutes and 46 seconds caught on tape sparked something that if you think about it tonight, virtually every american knows at least something about it. national protests spanning months. the reignited blm moment, center stage, formal demands for police reform and what barack obama himself called the greatest social justice push of this entire generation. so now many do know about george floyd, his face portrayed in murals and memorials around the nation, but as a legal matter, we're going to get into this tonight. the trial is primarily not about floyd but rather about the defendant, officer derek chauvin. the judgment will be for him, not floyd. the evidence will be to assess his actions and mind state, not that of the man he killed.

chauvin faces a range of charges including third degree murder and his lawyers had claimed all the publicity could hurt him as a defendant. >> i don't think there's anyplace in the state of minnesota that has not been subjected to extreme amounts of publicity on this case. >> now that was an initial and procedural law. chauvin's lawyers did get the judge to approve the use of some video arrest because of the alleged delay in compliance there. we can also report that early wrangling shows there will be disputes about the range of factors that contributed to floyd's death, as a factual matter. the defense, eyeing evidence to argue floyd's health was somehow compromised, apart from how police treated him. as a legal matter, even bad health is not a defense to killing someone. the judge ruling chauvin can be

guilty if he was a contributing cause of death. contributory cause, not, he doesn't have to be the sole cause of death. his trial is expected to run up to a month. it will be broadcast live on television starting tomorrow. the judge expects the state to present witnesses as soon as tomorrow afternoon. so we're going to get right into this in america tomorrow. prosecutors plan to call floyd's family to testify. and the goal there, the role will be simply to humanize him for this jury. and that will be allowed under state law. there are also limits that will avoid a wider discussion of his character and any past criminal history, because that has been deemed inadmissible. the justice system has a demand here, whatever you think about this case, you've clearly learned about it. you're watching the news now, so i'm sure you've watched the news before. you may have ideas about what happened and what was wrong. but justice demands the jury rule only on the evidence in court, not all that other stuff

we as citizens may know. and it also demands these jurors not bring in any wider view of justice or injustice across america. that's the law, i can tell you about that. you but you also need to understand that the fact that this trial is occurring tomorrow is bound up in this protest, in this demand for changes in the way criminal law work. convictions are rare. there have actually only been five officers convicted of any kind of murder on the job in the past 15 years. to begin our special tonight we are joined by nyu law professor melissa murray and paul butler. melissa, i emphasize the way that evidence works in court, because this is a trial where i think people know a lot about what happened. and tomorrow will be the jury's

job to what? >> both sides are going to be at great pains to get to the heart of the matter for each of them. the government has the burden of establishing mr. chauvin's guilt on the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt. that's a very high standard. that means for the defense, what they really need to do is inject the element of doubt. as you said, this question of mr. floyd's underlying health conditions will be really critical, because the government has to show beyond a reasonable doubt that derek chauvin's actions on that fateful day were a substantial cause of mr. floyd's death. so the defense is going to be at great pains to introduce evidence that there were other factors so that this was not a substantial cause of his death, that these other factors were more contributing. >> and if a juror says, like a viewer might say, well, i heard this or read this online, what will happen tomorrow? how will the judge deal with

that? >> they're not supposed to bring in evidence that comes from outside. they're really supposed to focus on what's presented to them, not everything that could be presented will be presented. if there's already been evidentiary rulings limiting the scope of some of the evidence that can be presented to the jurors, so they have to stick with what they're given. but, as you say, this is a case with which the jurors are likely incredibly familiar, because it's been in the ether for so long. limiting this will be difficult. >> paul, take a listen to what the state's attorney general said about the prospects of success for the prosecution. >> we are toing the path of all of the evidence. every single link in the prosecutorial chain, winning this will not be easy. winning a conviction will be hard. the very fact that we have filed

these charges means we believe in them. >> he says it will be hard, and yet, if you were an alien landing from outer space and you read that we have laws against killing people, and you read the text of them. and then you said the way you prove that in court is strong evidence, and you said in this case, here's this video. that alien or any other person looking, stacking it up might ask why is someone as ellison saying it's going to be hard. it seems to many that it all stacks up as a strong piece of evidence in the case. >> no prosecution of a mission officer is ever a slam dunk. jurors are often sympathetic to police officers. they think even if they made a mistake they were just trying to do their job. and the law encourages jurors to look at what happened from the perspective of the police officer. there's videotape in this case

that's very compelling. but there was videotape in the rodney king beating, and those cops walked. there was videotape of south carolina police officers shooting walter scott in the back. and those officers were not convicted in the first state trial. so this is a long hurdle. officer chauvin has nothing to prove. the prosecution's heavy burden is to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. >> yeah, as you remind us, that is something that is uniform. always the burden on the prosecution. and viewers may know you, paul, like melissa as one of our great analysts, very thoughtful, very thorough, you also, were if you don't mind my complimenting you on live tv, a very celebrated prosecutor in the d.c. office. and so you would actually do these kind of cases. you would think through how do you get a jury there.

i want to put up what we know about this jury. it starts tomorrow. and america's eyes will be on this case tomorrow, and thus, thinking about what the jurors are seeing. this is what we know so far. 60% of the, i'm sorry, looking at the wrong number. i thought i had -- i was looking at a different number, let me just do it from memory, paul. i know there's several different categories of jurors. there's six white women. there's multiple black members of the jury. there's multiple white members of the jury. more women than men on that side. and we saw a lot of wrangling about that. because it's important who is actually on the jury, if race is going to be a factor. what is your thoughts, here we go, and my apologies before. this has the break down for viewers as well. obviously, they're anonymous. we're not saying who they are. but your view of the wrangling over who's on this jury and what if anything can be gleaned from

it, paul. >> the jury has six peoples of color and people who identify as multi-racial. it also has seven people in their 20s and 30s. so the combination of people of color and younger folks makes it look like a good jury for the prosecution. because those are people who might be more skeptical of the police. and in this jury selection process, we saw that even white prospective jurors were impacted by the national reckoning on race. every person who's seated on this jury had heard about the case in advance. they had to assure the judge that they could put aside what they'd heard and just rule based on the evidence, presented in court. but there is one white woman who said that she strongly agreed that the police are biassed against african-americans. the judge said, well, can you put that aside and be fair, she said yes. ari, she's on the jury. >> right, which is a reminder of

how this works. both of our experts stay with us. we want to bring in mark claxton, a retired nypd detective and brings that experience. mark, you have police experience. you also are a civil rights advocate. and so i want to ask you to do two things here. number one, what is the kind of police defense we should start to hear in this case, and number two what might be the response or analysis you want to give of it from a civil rights perspective? can mark hear me? i think what we figured out, i'm going to throw it over to the professor, mark claxton. proof of life, he's here, but we're going to figure out his audio issues.

professor, same question to you if you heard it. >> the question as i heard it is what should we make of the composition of the jury, what arguments the defense will make. the defense will go to that question of injecting doubt into the prosecution's case to make the dhas it wasn't officer chauvin's actions that led to floyd's death, like the preexisting health conditions, that he was perhaps intoxicated or under the influence of drugs at the time of the arrest. all of that will come in as part of the defense in order to inject doubt into the prosecution's case. >> and paul, building on that, because, again, you can't understand a trial well at all without looking at both sides, and a lot of the evidence, if we follow the facts, a lot of the public evidence is obviously bad for the police. it's bad for chauvin as a

defeat. defendant. walk us through what a good defense lawyer would do, injecting doubt or trying to deal with something that might look quite obvious on video by getting the jury to question what the main cause of death might have been. >> ari, at the end of the defense presentation, you're not going to know whether it's chauvin on trial or george floyd. there are defenses that chauvin literally did not kill george floyd, that george floyd died because of a lethal combination of drugs, illegal drugs, and his serious preexisting health conditions. the toxicology report found drugs in floyd's system. the medical examiner says the cause of floyd's death was homicide, but that's a medical term, not a legal term. and importantly, the medical examiner does not say that floyd died of asphyxiation but rather that what chauvin did, his act

of putting his knee on floyd's neck, caused floyd to have a heart attack. but, at the time of floyd's death, chokeholds and neck restraints were allowed in minneapolis, although they have since been banned. >> all fair points. i want to widen out a little bit, and professor, take a listen to george floyd's brother, something that's happened in the law in the last several decades is a greater protection of what are called victim's impact statements and victim's role in the courtroom. it's a particularly acute issue in the black community, because so much of the violence is coming from the state. and so we have this sort of grim process that we're all doing as a country and sometimes in the news where we're hearing from basically grieving family members. in that spirit, george floyd's brother was speaking out today. he chose to speak to reverend sharpton, so i wanted to play a little of that for you and the viewers, take a look.

>> my brother, he died from asphyxiation, the equivalent of being choked to death in the black community. i want them to think about eric garner, when he didn't get the justice that he needed, i want them to think about breonna taylor. there's so many people around the world who didn't have footage, who were killed, innocent people, and we need biden to look into that, because the george floyd policing act is big. >> george floyd's brother broadening this. i want to get your perception of that, him using a sad, grieving platform to call on action by the new president. >> this victim impact statement is much more wide reaching than the ones we typically see. typically, they're introduced at the sentencing phase of a trial as a way of assessing the way in which a crime has impacted those

around them. and they're also used in ways that are detrimental to the black community. this is a turn-a-bout where george floyd's brother is speaking out. >> really important points. we did cover a lot of grounds. we were trying to get mr. claxton in. we have tech issues, just as if you were doing a zoom at home. i want to thank melissa and paul, both of you. coming up, more on the key question of what the jurors will be considering. we'll also be joined by congresswoman stacey plaskett, a former impeachment manager. she's live. also, the wider context for this trial. some of the largest social justice protests we've seen. we have the new aclu president. and our special report of this

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when officer derek chauvin is put on trial tomorrow for murder charges in the death of george floyd, millions may watch online. but the only ones who have a say are the jurors. which includes six white women. given the issues in this case, lawyers on both sides are viewing the jury's racial and ideological makeup. 14 will be present for opening statements, then there are two alternates. the jurors are anonymous, and they won't be sequestered during this trial. that's a contrast to some other

high-profile trial periods. they will be sequestered when they meet to deliberate. joining us is stacey plaskett. she's served in the justice department and a bronx prosecutor. we come to you for more than one reason. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> as i was doing in the opening of this special, i've been emphasizing to the viewers there's what justice requires and the specific facts of the case, and then what is the obvious, even glaring environment for this. one and two. so with you, i'd like to start with one, as a prosecutor, your view of the equities in this case, what you're watching for tomorrow. >> well, i think, of course, we're all going to be ref eted to hear what the opening statements are going to be, at both sides lay out their case and lay out what they presume the jury is going to hear, what evidence they are going to be presenting and their theory of the case. i would like to know what the

defense's theory is going to be. and there will be multiple charges they'll be able to out lead to try to convict the police officer in this matter. >> and widening out, as i mentioned, in number two something you worked on in your career in congress, systemic racism doesn't prove or disprove an individual case. it may be relevant to it, but ultimately, these jurors have to decide what's put forward to them in court. but when we widen out to what i call number two, there is systemic racism in minnesota as there is in so many states in the united states and not just certain states some might think of. minnesota, for example, has plenty of democratic and liberal leadership in various parts, but let's look at the structural data. the vast majority of them are used against black residents there. this is a police department's

own data, far disproportionate as compared to the population, and this, like the use of deadly force and weapons is of a piece with an american system where black people are quite routinely killed. on site, in daylight. how does that -- >> sure. >> -- fit into this and what the country takes from next week? >> you know, that all fits into not only the mind-set of the jurors but oftentimes unfortunately, mind-set of police officers. when they're approaching individuals. since the killing of george floyd, there have been 100 unarmed black individuals who have either been brutalized or killed by police. and so we have to recognize that we have a system which sees black people very differently than they see white individuals when they stop them. that's why members of congress have put forward the george

floyd justice in policing act, which is not to defund police and not to stop police but to support police officers to be much more community-oriented, to protect all of the people that they're there to fight for and to protect in the communities where they're serving. as you can see in the background, you might be able to see my grandfather was a police officer. my father served more than 30 years on the new york city police force. many of us are not against police. we need to provide them with tools so that they think differently, so that they have the mechanisms able to support the communities in which they serve. >> congresswoman, stacey plaskett, staying up with us on a sunday evening on the eve of this trial, thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you, we are going to be listening, as this is holy week. i'm praying for everyone that they have a blessed week and

that we all be prayerful during this time. >> well, as we say, amen. i can get down with you on that. >> oh, i didn't get a rap quote from you. i was looking for it. i was waitin'. >> well, you know, i will say this, as you and i both know, unfortunately, there's a long history of work in this domain. but when it gets super serious, sometimes i quote less to be honest. but there is relevant stuff. do you have one in mind before we go? >> you know, i was thinking of course, i was thinking of protective custody, the lyrics of that where you have so many rap artists who have gotten together to talk about it. but nothing really immediately comes to mind. do you have anything? >> you know, we'll go next time bar for bar now that i know that you're game. we don't always put members of congress on the spot, thanks

again, congresswoman. >> take care. >> appreciate you. still ahead in our special we have a report on this racial policing double standard, back in the news after that mass shooting last week and how deadly force really operates. but first from the streets to the courts, what's at stake in this trial with the protests in the streets when we cop back. th the streets when we cop back allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst psst you're good starting today, nobody has to settle for less than the very best. because only verizon gives you 5g from america's most reliable network at no extra cost. and plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. the plan is so reasonable, they can stay on

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welcome back to our special on the murder trial for the officer who killed george floyd. i mentioned earlier tonight that the very fact this trial is happening is rare in america. police killings are just rarely charged, even when those killed are unarmed and they themselves are not suspected of any serious crime. even rarer are convictions of officers. this bears keeping in mind, only five officers have been convicted of murder in the past

15 years. can you see right here those few convictions have come more recently for on-duty shootings. there's no single factor in tracking change. but public pressure has altered who some of the top prosecutors are in some of the areas and changed the dynamics for some of these decisions. and some states have new loss for independent mechanisms for whether to charge officers. the millions who have marched in support of black lives matter this summer, we've heard from a group demanding change and educating the public on a systemic problem. >> george floyd's life mattered. ♪ i can't breathe ♪ ♪ you're taking my life from me ♪ ♪ just because you're from the ghetto ♪ ♪ that doesn't mean he's selling crack ♪ >> for 400 years you've had your knees on our necks.

>> we need justice for george floyd. >> as a matter of law and civil rights, accountability for police brutality is a piece, one piece of the wider challenge. this trial is a response to a steady problem that advocates want to change. why do they want to change it? well, for starters, so these kind of trials aren't necessary. as you watch this trial begin tomorrow, keep in mind, the rate of police shootings and killings holds steady. looks to be on that same track this year, 2021. and the goal of civil rights leaders here is not just to put police on trial, it's to reform the system so police stop killing innocent people and have to be put on trial at all. and that's not my observation here. i'm reporting what we've been hearing from leaders who have been working in this for decades, indeed, before anyone knew that this particular killing would be such a national catalyst. the civil rights leader and our

colleague, reverend sharpton reiterated the goal, not a demand for help or special treatment or something like that but rather a demand that america finally change the story and get police to stop killing black people. as sharpton put it simply and sadly, quote, get your knee off our necks. >> george floyd's story has been the story of black folks. because ever since 401 years ago. the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee on our necks. it's time for us to stand up in george's name and say "get your knee off our necks"! >> there it was, that fateful day. we are joined by aclu president

and nyu law professor, debra archer, your thoughts. >> well, thank you for having me. you know, as you mentioned, it's very unusual to have an officer go on trial for murdering a black person. and as the trial begins tomorrow, i certainly am hopeful there will be some measure of justice for george floyd, for his family, for his community, and that it will end with people believing there's a possibility of justice and equality within our legal system, but we can never be really confident or comfortable when it comes to addressing racial injustice. the history of racial injustice and atrocities in this country really ends with justice for the family. so i am hopeful, but it's an every day challenge in america with the history of heartbreak and disappointment. and not lose sight of how far we've come and how far we have to go. when you say have we learned anything, what has come from

those protests, i think it depends on who the "we" is and how we are measuring progress. we are still in the beginning of a long overdue conversation about the racialized harm in policing and the need to re-imagine policing in public safety. and i think that conversation is not advancing at the pace or the way it needs to, given the harm. but, in the end, today, we're still using police as tools to subjugate, control, regulate and devalue black people, and today law enforcement still operates to control black people through a system that's really characterized by systemic racism. if we look back, we can reflect back on changes in how police officers do their jobs and engage with the community, how police officers are hired, trained, disciplined and held accountable. and we can look at whether we've made progress in beginning to unravel the systemic racism that

has woven itself through the centuries. and i'm not sure that we've made the progress that anyone has hoped for, or the kind of progress we've been promised. i think we can start with how officers do their jobs and engage with the community. if we look at the past few months we can compare a way that the member of the georgia state legislature was dragged out of the capital by police for doing the job she was elected to do or how police pepper sprayed a distraught 9-year-old girl compared to how a man just shot and killed eight people, mostly asian women, was armed and dangerous and peacefully taken into custody and treated with kindness and empathy. and we continue to see murders at the hands of police, falling george floyd, breonna saylor, rashaud brooks and others. and then the police responded by

inflicting the same violence on black and brown people who were demanding justice and accountability for the communities. so i'm not sure how far we've actually come. >> yeah, it all makes sense. i'm curious what you think about the paradox that it often takes the individual case, a person, a video, a face, to get more people on board, and yet justice in the broadest sense is not graded on just the outcome of a single case. everyone now for the next few weeks may focus on this, and yet you just walked through the type of reforms that are broader. what do you say to that in the context that any perception of minimizing the outcome or where the jury lands would be seen in some circles, some civil rights circles as just soft. but a lot of leaders we hear from say the most important

thing is not what 12 people are going to do, that's just a process, but having the systemic reform in state houses around the country. >> that's absolutely correct. unfortunately, it does take the death of individuals, harm to individuals to galvanize change and to calls for accountability. but beyond accountability for individual bad actors, we need to see systemic accountability. we should hold individuals accountable. but how will we confront the systems of racism that are embedded in our policing system? that will take more than holding individual purveyors of harm accountable. there are more derek chauvins than jail cells available. it isn't just lack of oversight policies or better procedures while doing more to radically change all of these things really remains essential for harm reduction, the problem is

more insidious, and the small changes may reduce harm but they're not going to eliminate it. >> right, which goes to actually having a wider cultural political reckoning that makes real change. so the incentives are pro active and not responding to the worst of the worst. we have to fit in a break, but i imagine we'll be calling on you throughout this trial. aclu president deborah archer. >> thank you for having me. >> i mentioned we have a special report on the racial double standard, and it's next. n the r standard, and it's next. idolizing them. mimicking their every move. and if she counts on the advanced hydration of pedialyte when it matters most... so do we. hydrate like our heroes. ♪♪

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up at 2:00am again? . tonight, try pure zzzs alle. night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep. as a cement mason, i use the dove bar... because i work with a lot... of dust and dirt. just washing... the dirt and the grime off... and just bringing you... back...to you. you see the glow? that's a dove bar. dove cleans effectively, cares beautifully. welcome back to our special coverage. i'm ari melber. tomorrow is a big moment. a police officer put on murder trial, being held potentially accountable for the actions that led to the killing of george floyd. and what was floyd even being arrested for?

well, he'd allegedly used a counterfeit bill. police also shot at jacob blake. he was walking away from police. he was shot seven times, paralyzing him. what about the racial double standard? it was in the news again this week which drew comparisons back to dylan roof, a man armed with a rifle who gunned down innocent victims in church. they carefully, methodically apprehended him. you can see officers calmly handcuffing him and leading him into the back of the car there. this is the exact racial double standard at play over and over around the country. the same double standard. people are not treated the same by police. i repeat. police are not treating people the same. now take a look at george floyd in the moments before he was killed. here he was beforehand. he was being walked out. he was not armed.

he was restrained. but then he was in that chokehold repeating the same words "i can't breathe." he told the officers he was claustrophobic and afraid to get in the floor. we don't have more information from floyd, because they killed him. it's an incident that shocked many in america not because it occurred, police killings of civilians are frequent, but shocking because it was caught on tape. there's a piece of it on the right-hand side of the screen. it's worse in the context of others like dylan roof, escalating interactions with a black man up to the point that authorities allege that what turned that into a crime scene, a murder scene is what police did. george floyd literally could not move. he couldn't breathe. and then he was killed.

now this is the double standard. this is the inequity. this is what protesters are protesting, the racism. what about the law? some people emphasize, well, these people, some of them, apparently, were resisting arrest. republican lindsey graham stressing that in the new case with blake, saying he didn't yield. >> i don't know what happened there. let's find out. i don't know what the facts are. >> now, people say fleeing the police is illegal. and it is. it's also illegal to drive over the speed limit or be late on your taxes. the punishment for resisting arrest like those infractions is not the death penalty, not in court, not in the summary execution without trial on the street by self-appointed executioners. this is important. it's illegal for police to use

deadly force on someone fleeing. under the law, they may only use such force if that person possesses the actual ability to kill or gravely injure people. the police or other people around. they have to have evidence of that. and this is what they call fundamental law. cops and lawyers know it, because it was a major supreme court decision. >> today, in a decision written with great emotional intensity, the supreme court wrote that police may not shoot at a fleeing suspect unless there's good reason to believe the suspect may kill or injure the police or others. >> and how did the supreme court come to even rule on that issue 35 years ago? now remember, the court only rules on things that actually happen, it doesn't issue a random opinion about an idea. something has to actually happen that then is appealed through the system all the way to the highest court. in this instance, a police shooting so bad, even by the standards of the reagan-era

crackdown, so bad that the court drew a line. what kind of case would that be? well, you're watching the news. you live in america. i bet you already have some idea, even if you don't remember the case. police killed a black child, unarmed. he weighed about 100 pounds and 15 years old. he was running away, not a threat to anyone, but he had stolen, allegedly, $10. >> one of those killed was edward garner, a 100-pound, unarmed 15-year-old who died one night on this fence in memphis after he failed to heed a police warning to stop as he fled with $10 and a purse from an empty house. >> i don't see no reason why they should have shot him, no reason whatsoever. >> no reason. $10, 15 years old. that was too much even for a reagan-era supreme court all those decades ago. now it's as illegal today as it was then when the supreme court ruled it, but that's the law.

you say, all right, ari, you're telling me all this stuff, and all this law, what's the point? the point is the system, which rarely investigates and punishes police when they break those laws, leaving so many black families objectivelily afraid of any potential police interaction because it clearly, methodically, objectively, historically, documented has a real risk of turning deadly in minutes. all of this comes full circle, because that's what civil rights leaders were warning about even before that supreme court decision. you can go all the way back to 1960s when stokely carmichael addressed how white fear can drive brutality. >> white people will have to admit that they are afraid to go into a black ghetto at night. they are afraid. that's a fact, because they are afraid because they be beat up, lynched, looted, et cetera, et cetera. that happens to black people every day inside the ghetto

incidentally. white people are afraid to do it, so you get a man to do it, a policeman. the first time a black man jumps, that white man going to shoot him. he's going to shoot him. so police brutality is going to exist on police brutality exists on that level. here we are. it's 55 years after that address. and the facts of the law can only take us so war in at the root of it is systemic racism thwarting even the laws that have been passed to address some of this. the killing of george floyd is tragic but mutt be viewed in the wider context. on the right, police who made him a dead, innocent man, while on the left you have police who carefully let convicted murderers live. with a lunch order if they wanted. just four years ago, when colin kaepernick took that knee during the national anthem. kneeling in protest of all this. silent, peaceful, against

systemic racism and violence plaguing the nation. we lived through the criticism he faced for that peaceful protest and retaliation and in our people protesting in wisconsin around the nation and inside the nba, going back at the same thing. it is tragic. it is wrong. stokely carmichael's wisdom applies so seamlessly to today's america. also he said, we're tired of trying to explain to white people we're not going to hurt them. the question is -- will white people overcome their racism, quote/unquote. we have been talking about race in this country since it was founded. if you use race as a prism we are still a very young democracy, because for so long people were not allowed to participate in their own lives, their freedom, let alone voting

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welcome back to the conclusion of our special tonight "the trial." i am happy to have spent this hour with you, and i want to tell you, as we've discussed this the entire hour with our guests, msnbc will have entire coverage of the trial starting tomorrow. opening statements for the murder of george floyd, what prosecutors are arguing. by all accounts historic inflection points. that's throughout the day. also we'll cover the trial a lot more tomorrow in my usual slot. if you watch msnbc, you may know. i anchor "the beat" weeknights on msnbc. like vans customized for work or play. with safety and tech to keep you connected.

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tonight, on "the mehdi hasan show," congresswoman omar is here following her viz it to the border. holding refugee kids in detention is personal to her. because she was once one of those kids. also, 20 people. we have the shootings in virginia. 20 people dead in the last two weeks from mass shootings. i'll ask a survivor of parkman why republicans won't act. and he's not one of tv's most famous political operatives -- >> we put him in a position to say no, and be a hero to his party.