After closing arguments, Judge Peter Cahill rejected a request for defense for a wrongful case, based in part on comments from California Representative Maxine Waters that protesters could face more confrontation if there was no conviction.
The judge told Chauvin’s lawyer: “Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that could lead to the entire trial being overturned.” He added: “I wish elected officials to stop talking about this matter, especially in a way that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judiciary.”
Chauvin, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, all of which require the jury to conclude that his actions were a ‘material causal factor’ in Floyd’s death and that his use of force was unreasonable.
The most serious charge carries up to 40 years in prison.
‘Use your common sense. Believe your eyes. What you saw, you saw, “prosecutor Steve Schleicher said in closing arguments, referring to Floyd’s bystander video pinned to the sidewalk with Chauvin’s knee on or near his neck for up to 9 minutes, 29 seconds, as the bystanders shouted the officer to get off.
Chauvin’s lawyer Eric Nelson opposed this, arguing that Chauvin had done what any reasonable police officer would have done after finding himself in a ‘dynamic’ and ‘fluid’ situation with a large man with three officers struggled.
When Nelson began speaking, the now-fired Chauvin removed his COVID-19 mask one of the few times during the trial before the jury.
At the end of the case, some stores in Minneapolis were raided. The courthouse was surrounded by concrete barriers and razor wire, and members of the National Guard were patrolling. Floyd’s death last spring caused protests in the city and in the US that sometimes turned violent.
The city has also been on the run for the past few days over the deadly police shooting at a 20-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, in a nearby suburb on April 11th.
A few hundred people gathered outside the courthouse shortly after the jury found the case and stood behind a banner: ‘Justice for George Floyd and all stolen lives. The world is watching. ”
Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell had the final say on Monday, refuting the state’s argument. The prosecutor, who is Black, said the questions about the use of force and cause of death are “so simple that a child can understand it.”
“In fact, a child understood it when the 9-year-old girl said, ‘Get away from him,'” Blackwell said, referring to a young witness who objected to what she saw. . “It simply came to our notice then. “Get away from him.” Common sense. “
Under the law, the police have a certain scope to use force, and their actions are supposed to be judged according to what a ‘reasonable officer’ would have done in the same situation.
Nelson noted that officers who first went to the corner store where Floyd allegedly wanted to pass on a counterfeit $ 20 bill were struggling with Floyd when Chauvin showed up as backup. The defense attorney also noted that the first two officers at the scene were rookies and that police said Floyd may be using drugs.
“A reasonable police officer understands the intensity of the fight,” Nelson said, noting that Chauvin’s body camera and badge had been knocked off his chest.
Nelson also showed photos of the jury of pills found in Floyd’s sport utility vehicle, and pill remains discovered in the group car. Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in Floyd’s system.
The lawyer said the prosecutor does not acknowledge that medical problems or drugs play a role, “defies medical science and it is common sense and reason.”
During the prosecutor’s argument, Schleicher repeated portions of the bystander video and other footage as he dismissed certain defensive theories about Floyd’s death as ‘nonsense’. He said Chauvin killed Floyd by restricting his breathing.
Schleicher rejected the argument for drug overdose, as well as the claim that the police were distracted by hostile spectators, that Floyd had ‘superhuman’ strength from a state of unrest, known as agitated delirium, and that he was possibly carbon monoxide poisoning due to had engine exhaust gas.
The prosecutor sarcastically referred to the idea that it was heart disease that killed Floyd as an ‘incredible coincidence’.
“Is it common sense or is it nonsense?” Schleicher asked the jury.
Blackwell, his co-prosecutor, also rejected the defense theory that Floyd died of a larger heart: ‘The truth is that George Floyd died because Mr. Chauvin’s heart was too small. ‘
Schleicher earlier described how Chauvin ignored Floyd’s crying and still knelt well on him after he stopped breathing and had no pulse. Chauvin was ‘9 minutes and 29 seconds on top of him and he needed to know,’ Schleicher said. “He needed to know.”
He said Chauvin heard Floyd, “but he just did not listen.”
The prosecutor said Floyd ‘threatened no one’ and did not try to escape when he struggled with officers, but rather was afraid of being put in the small back seat of the group.
He said a reasonable officer with Chauvin’s training and experience – he was a 19-year veteran in Minneapolis – had to clean up the situation accurately.
Chauvin, in a light gray suit with a blue shirt and blue tie, showed little expression as he watched himself and the other officers pin Floyd to the ground on a video of his camera played by his lawyer. He pulls his head to the side and occasionally leans over to write on a notebook.
An unknown woman occupied the single seat in a pandemic courtroom for a Chauvin supporter.
Floyd’s brother Philonise represented the family in court, as he regularly did during the trial.
Schleicher also noted that Chauvin had to use his training to provide medical care to Floyd, but ignored bystanders, turned down the help of a paramedic who was not on duty, and a suggestion from another officer to take Floyd to to roll his side, refused.
“He could have listened to bystanders. He could have listened to fellow officers. He could have listened to his own training. He knew better. He just did not do better, “said Schleicher.
Conscious indifference. Indifference. Want to know what indifference is and sounds? Schleicher asked before playing a video of Chauvin answering, ‘Uh-huh,’ while Floyd exclaimed.