MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The judge in the George Floyd murder case declined a defense request to immediately detain the jury on Monday morning after the murder of a black man during a traffic stop caused unrest in a suburb just outside Minneapolis.
The request came from the attorney of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that the jurors could be affected by the prospect of what could happen as a result of their verdict.
“Ultimately, Your Honor, the question becomes whether the jury has jurisdiction to make a decision regardless of the possible outcome of their decision,” said Nelson.
Judge Peter Cahill said he will not separate the jury until next Monday, when he expects the closing arguments to begin. He also turned down a defense request to question jurors about what they might have seen about unrest following Sunday’s police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center.
In the aftermath of the shooting, hundreds of protesters broke into about 20 businesses in a shopping center, jumped on police cars and threw rocks and other items at officers in Brooklyn Center, about 10 miles from the heavily fortified Minneapolis courthouse. Police in riot gear fired gas and flash grenades.
The Brooklyn Center police chief later called that the shooting was an accident and said the officer who fired was planning to draw a Taser and not a gun.
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher opposed the sequestration of the Chauvin jury, saying, “I don’t think that would be an effective remedy.” He also opposed questioning the jurors.
“World events are happening,” said Schleicher. “And we can’t have every world event that could affect a person’s attitude or emotional state or anything else cause us to come back and re-explain all the jurors.”
The judge had previously told the jury to avoid the news during the trial.
The verdict came as the trial entered its third week, with the prosecution nearly closing his case and giving way to the start of the defense. Prosecutors built their cases on scorching testimony, experts condemning Chauvin’s use of a neck brace, and medical authorities attributing Floyd’s death to a lack of oxygen.
When testimony resumed Monday morning, Dr. Jonathan Rich, a cardiology expert at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, echoed previous witnesses by saying that Floyd died of low oxygen from the way he was being held by police.
He rejected defensive theories that Floyd died of a drug overdose or heart disease. Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system and had high blood pressure and narrowing of the heart’s arteries, according to previous testimonials.
“It was really the forward restraint and positional limitations that led to his choking,” Rich said.
In fact, the expert said, “Any indicator is that Mr. Floyd actually had an exceptionally strong heart.”
Rich said he looked at Floyd’s autopsy report. He said that narrowing of the arteries is extremely common, and that Floyd had a slightly thickened or slightly enlarged heart, but that would be normal in someone with high blood pressure.
To corroborate the testimony of other experts, Rich said that Floyd was “ being restrained in a life-threatening way, ” noting, among other things, that he was lying face down on the floor, one knee in his neck, his hands behind. his back was shackled and pushed up, and one knee was on the lower half of his body.
Rich said that, as an officer on video noted that Floyd passed out, the police probably still could have saved his life had they moved him so that his lungs could expand again. And once an officer noticed that Floyd’s heartbeat had stopped, police still had a significant opportunity to save his life by administering CPR, he said.
During a cross-examination, Nelson tried to blame Floyd for struggling with the police when they tried to put him in their car. The defense attorney asked Rich if Floyd would have survived if he had “just gotten into the backseat of the police car.”
But Rich was quick to reiterate that the death was caused by the officers’ actions: “If he hadn’t been detained the way he was, I think he would have survived that day. I think he would have gone home or wherever he went. ”
Nelson replied, “So, in other words, if he got into the police car, he would still be alive.”
Derek Chauvin, 45, who is white, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death on May 25. Police had been called to a neighborhood market where Floyd was accused of trying to pass a fake bill.
Prosecutors say Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck when the 46-year-old black man was on the sidewalk for 9 1/2 minutes. Bystander video of Floyd shouting, “I can’t breathe!” until it eventually went limp, it sparked protests and spread violence in Minneapolis and around the US.
Chauvin’s attorney he is expected to call his own medical experts to claim it was not the officers knee who killed Floyd. The defense has not said whether Chauvin will 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.