Good morning, readers, and welcome to our continued live coverage of the Derek Chauvin trialProceedings against Chauvin are continuing this morning at 9 a.m. CT in Minneapolis, with the trial beginning his ninth day of testimony.
Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, is charged with unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd during an arrest last May.
Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during the fatal encounter. He has pleaded not to be guilty of the charges.
So far the process has been split into several main themes. Prosecutors have questioned witnesses, including Chauvin’s former colleagues and the police chief, extensively about the proper use of force.
They try to determine that Chauvin’s behavior violated department guidelines and was a blatant excessive use of force, resulting in Floyd’s death.
Chauvin’s defense has attempted, through a cross-examination of witnesses, to dissect concrete concepts of use of force, effectively arguing that excessive force in one situation might be appropriate and reasonable in some.
Remember, his attorney, Eric Nelson, has, in fact, argued through questions that the crowd that formed around Floyd’s arrest could have posed a threat to Chauvin and his colleagues on the ground, changing the benchmark for eligibility.)
Chauvin’s defense also tries to argue that Floyd’s drug use led to his death – not the knee to his neck when he called for help and eventually stopped breathing.
Here are some key points from Wednesday’s work:
- Sergeant Jody Stiger, who have called on prosecutors as expert witnesses on the use of force, said Chauvin’s use of force.was objectively not reasonable. “
- Stiger, whose defense tried to say a crowd could place a risk, held out, saying, “As time went on in the video, you could clearly see that Mr. Floyd’s medical… his health was deteriorating. His breath was getting lower and lower. His tone softened. His movements began to stop. So at that point, as an officer on the ground, you have the responsibility to realize that ‘okay, something isn’t right’. Something has changed drastically from what happened before, so that’s why you have a responsibility to take some action. “
- Both the Mercedes SUV Floyd and the police car were on the scene before his arrest, were subjected to a second forensic examinationWhile pills were captured in these vehicles during the first forensic investigation on May 27, they were not registered or subjected to chemical analysis until December 2020 and early 2021. Nelson has pushed to suggest that researchers made a grave mistake in missing this, in order to cast doubt on the research more broadly.
- Testimonials showed that the two pills contained methamphetamine and fentanyl.
- Susan Neith, a Pennsylvania-based forensic chemist who also analyzed the pills, stated that levels of methamphetamine found some of those samples to be low, between 1.9% and 2.9%. Neith said she regularly comes across methamphetamine pills on the street that contain 90% to 100% methamphetamine. Thus, testimony pointing to relatively low levels of methamphetamine may undermine Nelson’s drug overdose argument.
That’s it for now. Check back soon for breaking reporting and analysis.