MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The judge in the George Floyd murder case refused a defense request to sequester the jury immediately, the morning after the murder of a black man during a traffic stop caused unrest in a suburb just outside Minneapolis.
The request comes from the attorney for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that the jurors could be affected by the prospect that could happen as a result of their verdict.
“Ultimately, your honor, the question is whether the jury will be competent to make a decision, regardless of the possible outcome of their decision,” Nelson said.
Judge Peter Cahill said he would not prosecute the jury until next Monday, when he expects closing arguments to begin. He also refused a defense request to question jurors about what they may have seen about unrest after Sunday’s police shooting at 20-year-old Daunte Wright in downtown Brooklyn.
In the wake of the shooting, hundreds of protesters broke into a mall at about 20 businesses, jumped on police cars and hurled stones and other objects at officers in Brooklyn Center, about 10 miles (16 km) from the heavily fortified courthouse in Minneapolis. Police fired into unruly equipment gas and firearms.
Brooklyn Center police chief later called the shooting accidentally and said the officer who fired was planning to draw a Taser, not a handgun.
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher protested against the decision of the Chauvin jury, saying, “I do not think that would be an effective solution.” He also opposed questioning the jurors.
“World events happen,” Schleicher said. “And we may not have every world event that could affect someone’s attitude or emotional state or something, but that’s the reason to go back and hurt all the jurors.”
The judge had earlier told the jury to avoid the news during the trial.
The ruling came as the trial entered its third week, with the prosecutor closing the case close and abandoning the start of the defense. Prosecutors based their case on saturated evidence reports, experts condemning Chauvin’s use of neck protection, and medical authorities attributing Floyd’s death to a lack of oxygen.
When the testimony was resumed on Monday morning, dr. Jonathan Rich, a cardiology expert at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, earlier testified that Floyd died of low oxygen levels due to the way he was oppressed by police.
He rejects defense theories that Floyd died of a drug overdose or a heart condition. According to previous evidence, Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system and he had high blood pressure and narrowing of the arteries.
“It was really the inclined control and positional constraints that led to his suffocation,” Rich said.
In fact, the expert said, “Every indication is that Mr. Floyd actually had an extraordinarily strong heart.”
Rich said he reviewed Floyd’s autopsy report. He said that some degree of narrowing of the arteries is very common, and that Floyd has a slightly thickened or slightly enlarged heart, but that it would be normal in someone with high blood pressure.
Rich confirmed the testimony of other experts, saying Floyd was “life-threatening”. Among other things, he noticed that he was lying on the ground, had a knee on his neck, that his hands were handcuffed behind his back and were pressed. upward, and a knee was on the lower half of his body.
Rich said that, as one officer on the video noted that Floyd was dying out, police would probably still be able to save his life if they repositioned him so that his lungs could expand again. And as soon as an officer noticed that Floyd’s pulse had stopped, police still had an important opportunity to save his life by applying CPR, he said.
At cross-examination, Nelson tried to shift the blame on Floyd because he was struggling with police when they tried to put him in their car. The lawyer asked Rich if Floyd would survive if he ‘just climbed into the back seat of the group’.
But Rich quickly repeated that the death was caused by the officers ‘actions:’ If he had not been in the way he was, I would think he would have survived the day. I think he would have gone home, or wherever he would have gone. ”
Nelson replied, “So, in other words, if he had climbed into the group, he would have been alive.”
Derek Chauvin(45), who is white, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death on May 25. Police were called to a neighborhood market where Floyd is accused of trying to pass on a fake account.
Prosecutors say Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck when the 46-year-old Black man lay pinned on the sidewalk for 9 1/2 minutes. Floyd video of Floyd crying, “I can’t breathe!” until he finally became limp, protests and violence spread in Minneapolis and across the USA
Chauvin’s Attorney will be expected to call his own medical experts to state the case that it was not the officer’s knee that killed Floyd. The defense did not say whether Chauvin would testify.
___
Find AP’s full coverage of George Floyd’s death at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
___
Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.