Court TV announced plans to cover the live trials for the cases of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Robert Durst, R. Kelly, and the “Doomsday Cult Mom” Tuesday as part of its 2020-21 programming slate.
Leading the network’s upcoming roster will be the new “Judgment With Ashleigh Banfield” series, hosted by the former CNN and MSNBC legal analyst who recently returned to Court TV. The hourlong series will take viewers on a deep dive of the most provocative and talked about trials of all-time, including Casey Anthony, Jodie Arias, O.J. Simpson, and Conrad Murray. That’s set to premiere on Sept. 13 with new episodes on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET.
Titled “The Death of George Floyd,” Court TV’s coverage will follow the trial of Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin, who suffocated Floyd by kneeling his neck for eight minutes on May 25, and the officers who assisted him that day, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao.
“Four Minneapolis Police Officers will be tried in the death of George Floyd, the case which launched a national movement on race in America,” reads the description from Court TV. “Derek Chauvin, the man shown on video with his knee on Floyd’s neck, faces murder charges while three other officers are charged with aiding and abetting murder.”
“The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery” will cover the trial of Georgia v. Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, William Bryan, who, “Three white men are accused of murder in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed African-American man who was shot while jogging through a south-Georgia neighborhood,” according to the network.
Next, “The Case of The Doomsday Cult Mom” covers the trials of Idaho v. Lori Vallow and Idaho v. Chad Daybell. The two face charges after authorities found the bodies of Vallow’s children, Tylee and JJ, buried in their backyard. Daybell, a former gravedigger, has authored multiple doomsday books and is “rumored to have built a cult-type following,” according to Court TV. “Multiple other suspicious deaths surround the couple, including each of their previous spouses. Vallow currently faces two felony counts of conspiracy to destroy, alter or conceal evidence.”
“‘The Jinx’ Murder Trial” covers California v. Robert Durst, the trial of the wealthy New York real-estate heir facing first-degree murder charges in connection to his friend Susan Berman. Durst is also a suspect in the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack, the network adds, and investigators believe that he killed Berman to keep her quiet about what happened to McCormack. He is the subject of the HBO documentary “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.”
“The R. Kelly Sex Abuse Case” follows the U.S. v. Robert Sylvester Kelly, a case concerning entertainer R. Kelly, who is currently in a federal prison in Chicago facing racketeering and sex trafficking charges involving five women. Kelly was the subject of a January 2020 Lifetime docuseries called “Surviving R. Kelly.”