Through the long months of trial preparation, Mr. Katyal said, a constant message from Mr. Ellison was that their work was part of the larger arc of America’s story of racial injustice.
Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, has long been an important voice on criminal justice issues in Minneapolis. Credit... MINNEAPOLIS — As a young civil rights lawyer almost 20 years ago, Keith Ellison took on a client who accused two Minneapolis police officers of sodomizing him with a toilet plunger.
Mr. Ellison, 57, who grew up in Detroit and moved to Minnesota to attend law school, became the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006 and a rising star of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Tim Pugmire. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison answers questions during a news conference in St. Paul on Wednesday about the investigation into the killing of George Floyd, who died May 25, while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers. Gov. Tim Walz said Sunday that he decided Ellison needs to lead the case.
“Even if he turns this over to somebody else, this now such a high-profile case that becomes a referendum, in part, on him,” Schultz said.