Chauvin, who spoke into a microphone before the jury entered court, said it was his decision and his decision alone not to testify. Interrogation of his lawyer Eric Nelson suggested a tense internal debate on the issue.
“I advised you, and (to say it) we went back and forth on the matter, it would be an understatement, wouldn’t it?” Ask Nelson.
“Yes, it is,” Chauvin said.
If he chose to testify, prosecutors would be allowed to cross-examine him.
The defense rested its case Thursday morning.
“In my opinion, Mr. Floyd had a sudden cardiac arrhythmia or arrhythmia due to his atherosclerosis and hypertensive heart disease … during his reluctance and subdual by the police,” said Dr. Floyd. David Fowler, a retired forensic pathologist, said at the end of 2019 as Maryland’s chief medical examiner.
Fowler also put forward a new argument that carbon monoxide from the group’s exhaust may have contributed to Floyd’s death – a theory that he admits he could not support with any data or test results.
Prosecutors told the court Thursday morning that they had only become aware the night before of the results of “blood gas readings” showing that Floyd’s carbon monoxide levels were normal. However, Judge Peter Cahill said the test results were not allowed because they had previously noted that Dr. Fowler will present his theory on carbon monoxide.
“It is untimely to give notice this morning and will harm the defense by the late announcement, even if it is not due to bad faith,” Cahill said.
Several other defense witnesses testified about Floyd’s drug use, especially during a previous arrest in May 2019 in which he was taking opioids when police approached him in a vehicle.
Chauvin, 45, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Judge Cahill indicated earlier this week that he preferred to make the final argument on Monday because the jury would be sequestrated thereafter. Cahill also said the prosecutor will have the opportunity to have a rebuttal witness.
The defense’s two main experts
Fowler’s analysis focused on every issue except Chauvin’s self-control of Floyd in the inclined position.
He mentions Floyd’s narrowed coronary arteries, known as atherosclerosis, and his enlarged heart due to his high blood pressure or high blood pressure. Flowd’s use of fentanyl and methamphetamine, a tumor known as a paraganglioma, and the carbon monoxide were other important conditions that contributed to his death, Fowler said.
Meanwhile, he ruled out positional asphyxia as the cause.
“Positional asphyxia, as the term is used in court today, is an interesting hypothesis and is not supported by any experimental data,” he testified. He said Floyd’s death had to be classified as ‘indefinite’ rather than a murder, because there were so many competing causes.
The evidence cut across the prosecutor’s argument that Floyd’s primary cause of death was low oxygen due to Chauvin’s control of a curved Floyd in the inclined position – known as ‘positional asphyxia’.
The lawyer, Jerry Blackwell, during cross-examination dr. Fowler sharply questioned and repeatedly cut off the doctor’s efforts to provide longer answers.
Fowler could not identify the point at which Floyd suffered his ‘sudden’ cardiac arrest, and he said he did not notice that Floyd’s voice was getting thicker as time went on. He also said he agrees that Floyd should get medical attention at the scene immediately.
The doctor’s analysis contradicts much of what the prosecution experts said last week.
Dr Jonathan Rich, a cardiologist who testified for the prosecution on Monday, said Floyd’s heart showed no evidence of injury at all.
On Tuesday, an expert on the use of force said Chauvin was justified in kneeling on Floyd for more than nine minutes and not using lethal force.
‘I felt that Derek Chauvin was justified and acted with objective reasonableness, according to the policy of the Minneapolis police and the current standards of law enforcement in his interaction with Mr. Floyd, ‘said Barry Brodd, a former police officer.
Much of Brodd’s testimony strongly contradicted the prosecutors of the prosecution and Medaria Arradondo, Minneapolis police chief, who said Chauvin’s actions were ‘in no way, shape or form’ within the policies, training, ethics or values of the department does not.
At cross-examination, Brodd conceded that a reasonable officer in Chauvin’s position would have known that Floyd eventually stopped breathing, had no pulse and did not resist. Chauvin, despite knowing, did not change his position from above Floyd, Brodd testified.