Summary
We’re wrapping our coverage for the day, here’s a summary of Monday’s events:
- Jury deliberations in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial have begun after the prosecution and defense teams made their closing arguments. A verdict is unlikely to come today.
- Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell delivered a powerful closing line when he rebutted claims that George Floyd died because of an enlarged heart, among other health problems. “The reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr. Chauvin’s heart was too small,” he told the jury.
- Prosecutor Steve Schleicher earlier argued how Chauvin’s actions fall into the specific charges against him. “The state does not need to prove that he intended to kill George Floyd,” he said.
- On the defense side, Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, argued the state had “failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt”. Nelson also contended that a confluence of factors, including Floyd’s health problems and drug use, caused his death - not asphyxia.
- “Officers are human beings capable of making mistakes in highly stressful situations,” Chauvin’s defense said in a key point after two hours of presenting its arguments. It was a significant admission of potential error.
- Protests have been under way near the Hennepin county government center, where the trial is taking place. High school students across Minneapolis staged a walk-out on Monday.
Updated
Joe Biden reportedly considering national address after Chauvin verdict
The Associated Press is reporting that the White House is privately weighing how it will respond to the verdict in the Chauvin trial, including talks of a national address.
The AP reports:
The Biden administration is privately weighing how to handle the upcoming verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, including considering whether President Joe Biden should address the nation and dispatching specially trained community facilitators from the Justice Department, aides and officials told The Associated Press.
Closing arguments began Monday in Chauvin’s trial with a prosecutor telling jurors that the officer “had to know” he was squeezing the life out of George Floyd as he cried over and over that he couldn’t breathe and finally fell silent. Chauvin faces murder and manslaughter charges.
The plans for possible presidential remarks are still fluid, with the timing, venue and nature of the remarks still being considered, in part depending on the timing of the verdict, according to two White House aides who were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The White House has been warily watching the trial proceed in Minneapolis — and then another shooting of a Black man by a white police officer last week — and are preparing for the possibility of unrest if a guilty verdict is not reached in the trial. Biden may also speak after a guilty verdict, the White House aides said.
The verdict — and the aftermath — will be a test for Biden, who has pledged to help combat racism in policing, helping African Americans who supported him in large numbers last year in the wake of protests that swept the nation after Floyd’s death and restarted a national conversation about race. But he also has long projected himself as an ally of police, who are struggling with criticism about long-used tactics and training methods and difficulties in recruitment.
Press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the White House has had a “range of conversations” about preparations for the upcoming verdict and added, “Our objective is to ensure there is space for peaceful protest.”
“Of course we’ll let the jury deliberate and we’ll wait for the verdict to come out before we say more about our engagements,” Psaki said.
Read the full story here.
As the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial approaches, Amudalat Ajasa reports for the Guardian today on a fence in Minnesota that’s become a flashpoint in a suburban community.
She writes ...
A simple suburban fence in Minnesota that has become a local attraction and a symbol of the battle for equality – but has also drawn critics – is now at the center of a row with the authorities.
Ryan Weyandt and his husband, Michael Hainlin, keep bumping up against deadlines to obey a city order to paint over the vivid statement adorning their fence declaring that Black Lives Matter.
The message has endured outside their house in West St Paul, with block capital letters about 6ft high, since not long after George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed by a white police officer just a few miles away in Minneapolis last May.
The timing of the row is especially sensitive as the trial of former officer Derek Chauvin, charged with murdering Floyd, approaches its conclusion.
The entire Minneapolis-St Paul region was already on edge as a result, and tension was only heightened earlier this week by the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, by a white police officer in Brooklyn Center on the outskirts of Minneapolis.
For months, the couple’s fence has been a magnet for people to drop off flowers, leave balloons or just swing by to take pictures or to thank them, in what has largely been a positive public response, Weyandt, a realtor, said.
“We didn’t want to stir a pot, it wasn’t about angering neighbors or aggravating anyone or trying to get under anyone’s skin,” Weyandt told the Guardian.
“We put this up so we could provoke at least one conversation and help someone get to a different thought level,” he added.
Read the full story below:
Here’s a video of a dramatic moment from the closing arguments delivered by prosecutor Jerry Blackwell earlier today.
Addressing the jury, Blackwell rebutted the defence’s argument that George Floyd died of heart disease and illegal drug use. “You were told … that Mr Floyd died because his heart was too big,” Blackwell said. “The truth of the matter is that the reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr Chauvin’s heart was too small.”
Updated
The Associated Press has composed a useful explainer on the questions the 12 members of the jury face.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He could be convicted on all of the charges, some or none.
The case comes down to two key questions: whether Chauvin caused Floyd’s death and whether his actions were reasonable. Each charge requires a different element of proof as to Chauvin’s state of mind.
How do the charges against Chauvin compare
For all three charges, prosecutors had to prove that Chauvin caused Floyd’s death and that his use of force was unreasonable.
Prosecutors didn’t have to prove Chauvin’s restraint was the sole cause of Floyd’s death, but only that his conduct was a “substantial causal factor.” Chauvin is authorized to use force as a police officer, as long as that force is reasonable.
To convict on any of these counts, jurors must find that Chauvin used a level of force that would be considered unreasonable to an objective officer in his position. Hindsight can’t be a factor.
The charges differ when it comes to Chauvin’s state of mind with second-degree murder requiring some level of intent not an intent to kill but that Chauvin intended to apply unlawful force to Floyd all the way down to manslaughter, which requires proof of culpable negligence.
What’s second-degree unintentional murder?
It’s also called felony murder. To prove this count, prosecutors had to show that Chauvin killed Floyd while committing or trying to commit a felony in this case, third-degree assault. They didn’t have to prove Chauvin intended to kill Floyd, only that he intended to apply unlawful force that caused bodily harm.
What about third-degree murder?
For this count, jurors must find Chauvin caused Floyd’s death through an action that was “eminently dangerous” and carried out with a reckless disregard for and conscious indifference to the loss of life.
And second-degree manslaughter?
Prosecutors had to show that Chauvin caused Floyd’s death through culpable negligence that created an unreasonable risk, and that he consciously took the chance of causing severe injury or death.
What does Chauvin face if convicted?
Each count carries a different maximum sentence: 40 years for second-degree unintentional murder, 25 years for third-degree murder, and 10 years for second-degree manslaughter.
But under Minnesota sentencing guidelines, for a person with no criminal history, each murder charge carries a presumptive sentence of 12 1/2 years in prison, while manslaughter has a presumptive sentence of four years.
Prosecutors are seeking a sentence that goes above the guideline range. They cited several aggravating factors, including that Floyd was particularly vulnerable, that Chauvin was a uniformed police officer acting in a position of authority, and his alleged crime was witnessed by multiple children including a 9-year-old girl who testified that watching the restraint made her “sad and kind of mad.”
Chauvin has waived his right to have a jury decide if aggravating factors exist. So if he is convicted, Judge Peter Cahill will make that decision and would sentence Chauvin at a later date. In Minnesota, defendants typically serve two-thirds of their penalty in prison, with the rest on parole.
Protesters gathered near the Hennepin county government center today, where the closing arguments in the trial took place. Photographers captured these scenes.
Judge upholds sentence of white former police officer who killed Walter Scott
Michael Slager, who was convicted of murdering Walter Scott in South Carolina in 2015, has been appealing his sentence, saying his lawyer did not inform him of options to get a lighter sentence.
This all playing out while the Derek Chauvin trial was happening in Minneapolis.
Now The Associated Press brings this update:
A judge today upheld a 20-year prison sentence for a white former police officer in the killing of Walter Scott, a Black man in South Carolina, saying the ex-officer’s lawyer did not do a poor job.
Michael Slager had appealed his sentence, saying his lawyer never told him about a plea offer from prosecutors that could have cut years off his eventual prison term for fatally shooting Scott.
But federal Judge Richard Gergel wrote in his ruling that he believed Slager’s lawyer, Andy Savage, who said in court papers that he told his client about every plea offer.
Slager testified during a hearing last week he didn’t know about the initial deal from prosecutors.
Slager’s 20-year sentence was one of the longest in recent memory for a police officer for an on-duty killing.
Slager pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge for shooting Scott in the back five times on April 4, 2015.
Slager had pulled over the 50-year-old Black motorist for a broken brake light when their confrontation was captured on a bystander’s cellphone video that later spread worldwide on social media.
In the encounter, the two could be seen tumbling to the ground after Slager hit Scott with a Taser stun gun.
Authorities said their investigation found Scott got back up and was shot from a distance of about 15 feet as he ran from the officer.
The shooting itself was captured on video, something Slager didn’t know when he initially told investigators that Scott had charged at him after stealing his Taser.
“At sentencing, Petitioner attempted to blame the victim. Now, he attempts to blame his defense counsel and the trial judge. But a careful review of this entire tragic episode makes plain that Petitioner has no one to blame for his present predicament and sentence but himself,” Gergel wrote.
Derek Chauvin’s defense lawyer, Eric Nelson, has cited comments by Democratic congress member Maxine Waters this weekend in a renewed push for a mistrial.
“A United States congressperson was making, what I interpreted to be, what I think are reasonably interpreted threats against the jury process,” he tells Judge Peter Cahill shortly after the jury has left to deliberate.
Nelson was referring to Waters’ comments on Saturday when she spoke in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a police officer last week.
“I’m going to fight with all of the people who stand for justice,” said Waters, who is Black. “We’ve got to get justice in this country and we cannot allow these killings to continue.”
Waters further commented: “We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
“I hope we’re going to get a verdict that will say guilty, guilty, guilty. And if we don’t, we cannot go away,” she said of Chauvin.
Nelson paraphrased Waters’ view as “if there’s not a guilty verdict, then there would be further problems”.
The judge, although he rejects Nelson’s request for a mistrial based on Waters’ comment, says it could pose an issue going forward.
Judge Cahill: "I'll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something that will allow this case to be overturned on appeal."
— Brandon Stahl (@b_stahl) April 19, 2021
“I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law,” Cahill says. “Their failure to do so is abhorrent.”
Updated
Jury begins deliberations
The jury in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial has been sent to start deliberations.
Updated
Prosecutor: 'George Floyd is dead is because Mr Chauvin’s heart was too small'
The final line of prosecutor Jerry Blackwell came as a dramatic rebuke to Derek Chauvin’s defense, who had claimed that George Floyd died because of an enlarged heart, among other health problems.
“You were told, for example, that Mr. Floyd died because his heart was too big,” Blackwell says. “And now, having seen all the evidence, having heard all the evidence, you know the truth, and the truth of the matter is that the reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr. Chauvin’s heart was too small.”
Updated
In his rebuttal, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell is now emphasizing his argument that Derek Chauvin abused his power, saying it is “wrong to take this badge, which is a symbol of a commitment of a higher calling, to use this badge as a license to abuse the public, to mistreat the public.”
Blackwell has also countered arguments from Chauvin’s defense lawyer, Eric Nelson, that the former Minneapolis officer was worried about bystanders.
“He had all of the power at that point,” Blackwell says. “He had the bullet, guns, the Mace that he threatened bystanders with, he had backup, he had the badge.”
If the crowd was such a threat to Chauvin, and wanted to intervene, they could have overpowered him. But, Blackwell points out, they did not. Instead, they recorded the incident on cell phones.
“The fact of the matter, ladies and gentleman, is there can be no excuse for police abuse.”
Blackwell also says that Chauvin’s actions were so obviously wrong that a young child could understand it, an apparent allusion to testimony from a nine-year-old who witnessed Floyd’s death.
"You don't need a PhD, you don't need an MD to understand how fundamental breathing is to life," prosecutor Jerry Blackwell says in his rebuttal in #DerekChauvinTrial. "Even a nine-year old little girl knows it."
— Grace Hauck (@grace_hauck) April 19, 2021
The prosecution kicked off its rebuttal w/ Blackwell calling common sense the 46th witness in the #DerekChauvinTrial
— Fabiola Cineas (@FabiolaCineas) April 19, 2021
"What you have to decide [...] is so simple that a child could understand it. In fact, a child did understand it when the 9 yr old girl said, 'Get off of him.'"
Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell has started the state’s rebuttal argument in Derek Chauvin’s murder case. When Blackwell’s rebuttal ends, jurors will start deliberating.
“You can believe your eyes, ladies and gentlemen,” Blackwell says. “It was homicide.”
“Reasonable officer” are not “magic words,” Blackwell says. “Reasonable is as reasonable does.”
Blackwell’s reference to “reasonable officer” alludes to Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defense attorney. During his closing, Nelson repeatedly claims that Chauvin’s actions were those of a “reasonable officer.”
That is, Nelson has argued that Chauvin’s use-of-force was justified based upon George Floyd’s behavior early in his encounter with police as well as the growing crowd.
Derek Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, has just completed his closing argument. Nelson has said that several things might have gone differently on the day of George Floyd’s death.
Paramedics didn’t move sooner with resuscitation efforts nor did they give him Narcan, a drug that is administered during a suspected opioid overdose.
“I am no suggesting to you that the ambulance, paramedics did anything wrong,” he says. “It shows that human beings make decisions in highly stressful situations that they believe to be right in the very moment it’s occurring.”
“There’s lots of what ifs,” after an incident, Nelson says. “Lots of them.”
“When you take into consideration the presumption of innocence, and proof beyond a reasonable doubt, I would submit to you that it is nonsense to suggest none of these other factors have any role that is not reasonable,” he says, alluding to Floyd’s health, drug use, and his claim earlier about possible carbon monoxide poisoning. “The state has failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Lawyers and the judge are now discussing legal issues. The prosecution’s rebuttal will begin very soon.
Updated
Court has resumed following a short break. Derek Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, is resuming his closing argument.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, in the death of George Floyd during a 25 May 2020 arrest.
Court break summary
While the Derek Chauvin trial is on break, after a long morning and a late stop for lunch, here is a recap of the main points today as the prosecution and defense present their closing arguments.
Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, denies charges of second degree and third degree murder, and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd last May.
- “Officers are human beings capable of making mistakes in highly stressful situations,” Chauvin defense says in a key point after two hours of presenting its arguments. It was a significant admission of potential error.
- Eric Nelson, Derek Chauvin’s lead defense lawyer, began his closing arguments mid-to-late morning in the court room in downtown Minneapolis.
- Prosecutor Steve Schleicher earlier argued how Chauvin’s actions fall into the specific charges against him. “The state does not need to prove that he intended to kill George Floyd,” he said.
- The prosecution spells out the meaning of each of the three charges against Chauvin and describes how the state believes he is guilty.
- Closing arguments began soon after 9am local time (10am ET), with the prosecution telling the jury that Chauvin’s use of force was improper, and that George Floyd died from a lack-of-oxygen as his breathing was being restricted by Chauvin and the other two officers pressing on him while he was handcuffed on the street in south Minneapolis last May 25.
The judge presiding over Derek Chauvin’s trial has just called a lunch break. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, will resume his closing argument after court resumes.
The judge cuts off Nelson's closing statement after two and a half hours so the jury can get lunch. It'll resume after a break. pic.twitter.com/aw6BUAVC7S
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 19, 2021
Updated
Derek Chauvin’s lawyer has been addressing the second major theme of this case: George Floyd’s cause of death. Prosecutors contend that Floyd died from a lack of oxygen because Chauvin kept his knee on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds during an arrest last May.
Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, contends that a confluence of factors, including Floyd’s health problems and drug use, caused his death - not asphyxia.
“There’s no evidence of any brain injury” consistent with an asphyxial death, he has told jurors.
Nelson pointed to the county medical examiner’s report which listed “complicating” factors including artery and blood-pressure related problems, as well as the presence of fentanyl and methamphetamine, under Floyd’s listed cause of death.
“If something is insignificant to death,” Nelson says, authorities won’t list it on a death certificate.
“No single factor one over the other played any more of a role,” Nelson says.
“You have to analyze the evidence in the broader context.”
Nelson’s closing also addresses prosecution witnesses’ contention that Floyd didn’t have high enough levels of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system to have overdosed.
“I’m not suggesting that this is an overdose death, it’s a multi-factoral process.”
Updated
'Officers are human beings capable of making mistakes in highly stressful situations,' Chauvin defense says
After nearly two hours, we have arrived at a seeming twist in Eric Nelson’s closing argument.
While continuing to insist that Derek Chauvin’s actions toward George Floyd were justified, he seems to say that human fallibility might have played a role in the former officer’s decisions that day.
“Simply because someone isn’t stabbing you or punching you or shooting at you, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use force,” he says, again pointing to departmental policy that permits non-deadly use of force.
He implores jurors to consider the situation from the officer’s perspective, and also says: “You have to take into account that officers are human beings capable of making mistakes in highly stressful situations.”
As KARE 11’s Danny Spewak notes, this might be the first time Nelson has recognized the possibility of a mistake.
For perhaps the first time during this trial, Derek Chauvin's lawyer acknowledges a "mistake" might have been made: "Officers are human beings, capable of making mistakes in highly stressful situations.”
— Danny Spewak (@DannySpewak) April 19, 2021
“This was an authorized use of force, as unattractive as it may be,” Nelson also says. “And this is reasonable doubt.”
Did Chauvin “intentionally apply unlawful force? That’s what you’re being asked to decide,” Nelson says.
“Did he purposefully purposefully apply unlawful force to another person?” he continues, alluding to language in the statutes that Chauvin is charged under. “Did he intentionally perform an act that was imminently dangerous.?
Nelson argues that the presence of body-worn cameras and spectators undermine the notion that Chauvin would purposefully do anything unlawful.
“Do people do things [unlawful] intentionally and purposefully when they know they’re being watched?” he says.
Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, is presenting his argument that Derek Chauvin might have rightfully perceived the crowd as a risk. As Chauvin was restrained on the ground, onlookers gathered, with some calling out to police officers that Floyd was in distress.
Nelson is making this point as it’s part of his position that scenes are in a constant state of flux, making appropriate use-of-force situational. Nelson has contended that Chauvin’s use-of-force with George Floyd was reasonable given the circumstances.
“Never underestimate a crowd’s potential,” Nelson says, then referring to Minneapolis police department training materials.
“Most crowds are complaint,” he says, reading from the training materials. He further reads aloud: “Crowds are very dynamic creatures and can change rapidly.”
Nelson concedes that this guidance is largely for large crowds, such as protests, but that the principles applies to “any crowd.”
“You never under estimate a crowd’s potential,” he reiterates.
“A reasonable police officer has to be aware and alert of his surroundings,” he says. “A reasonable police officer considers his department’s training.”
Derek Chauvin’s lawyer, again emphasizing the notion of a “reasonable police officer,” says that “non-deadly force can be used to physically manage a person.”
This attorney, Eric Nelson, has also taken issue with the prosecution’s repeated use of “nine minutes and 29 seconds”—the amount of time Chauvin kept his knee against George Floyd’s neck.
“That’s not the proper analysis,” Nelson says. “The 9 mins and 29 seconds ignores the previous 16 minutes and 59 seconds” where Floyd resists.
“It says, in that moment at that point, nothing else that happened before should be taken into consideration,” Nelson says of prosecutors’ emphasis on the time Chauvin’s knee was pressed against Floyd’s neck. “A reasonable police officer would in fact take into account the last 16 minutes and 59 seconds.”
“Human behavior is unpredictable and nobody knows it better than a police officer. Someone can be compliant one second and fighting the next,” he says.
Nelson also argues that even if a person stops kicking and punching, under police use-of-force guidelines, it “doesn’t mean you can’t control them with your body weight.”
Derek Chauvin’s attorney is going into his detailed argument as to why he used appropriate use of force in restraining George Floyd.
Eric Nelson, in his closing, is saying that a “reasonable police officer” did not know what would happen given what he describes as Floyd’s “active resistance” in being arrested.
Nelson says that a “reasonable police officers understands the intensity” of the officers’ struggle with Floyd.
Earlier, Nelson also says that Nelson’s use-of-force guidance includes “controlled takedowns” and “conscious neck restraint.”
“He has, per his training, these techniques at his disposal.”
Derek Chauvin’s lawyer has used the argument that George Floyd might have suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning to make a point about how jurors should weigh evidence.
Remember, Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, brought an expert witness last week to talk about other factors that might have contributed to Floyd’s death. This witness, forensic pathologist Dr David Fowler, told jurors that carbon monoxide from the tailpipe near Floyd’s head—he was restrained prone against the ground during his fatal encounter with police—might have contributed to his death.
Prosecutors re-called their expert witness, Dr Martin Tobin, to rebut Fowler’s testimony; they have contended that Floyd died from a lack of oxygen.
That the defense has used carbon monoxide to explain, in part, Floyd’s death has come to a surprise for many.
“Take the time and conduct an honest assessment of the facts in this case,” Nelson has implored jurors.”We have to be intellectually honest about the evidence.”
Dr Tobin “told you we can completely disregard, we know conclusively” that Floyd didn’t have carbon monoxide poisoning because his blood-oxygen saturation was 98 percent, Nelson says.
We “could get up and argue to you we know this isn’t asphyxiation because George Floyd had a 98 percent oxygen level,” he says, “But that’s not intellectually honest.”
“It doesn’t stack up against the rest of the evidence because of what we know.”
Nelson has pointed to the fact that paramedics were manually breathing for Floyd, and re-oxygenating his blood during these efforts.
Nelson’s efforts are part of his entreaties to jurors that they consider evidence in a global way, the big picture rather than snippets of video.
“Essentially, what the state has to convince you, is the evidence in this case completely eliminates any reasonable doubt or in other words leaving only unreasonable doubt.”
“You need to review the entirety of the evidence of this case,” he says.
“Take the time and conduct an honest assessment of the facts in this case.”
Chauvin's defense begins closing argument
Court has just resumed from a brief break in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. The former Minneapolis police officer’s attorney, Eric Nelson, has just started his closing argument.
Chauvin is facing charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, in the death of George Floyd during a 25 May 2020 arrest.
Chauvin, who is White, kept his knee against the neck of Floyd, who is Black, for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Floyd, who was also restrained prone on the ground, died.
Chauvin prosecution ends closing argument
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher has ended his closing argument in the murder case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
“It was unreasonable. It was excessive,” he says of Chauvin’s use-of-force against George Floyd during the 25 May 2020 arrest.
Chauvin kept his knee pressed against Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, while the man was subdued and restrained prone against the ground. Floyd died.
“It was grossly disproportionate.”
“This case is exactly what you thought,” he also says in his closing, which lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
“You can believe your eyes. It’s exactly what you saw with your eyes.
“It’s what you felt in your gut,” he continues. “It’s what you now know in your heart.”
“This wasn’t policing. This was murder. The defendant is guilty of all three counts. All of them. And there’s no excuse.”
Chauvin’s lawyer will begin his closing arguments soon.
'The state does not need to prove that he intended to kill George Floyd,' Chauvin prosecutor says
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher has argued how Derek Chauvin’s actions fall into the specific charges against him: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
“The state does not need to prove that he intended to kill George Floyd,” he says.
Under Minnesota state law, second-degree unintentional murder includes when a person “causes the death of a human being, without intent to effect the death of any person, while committing or attempting to commit a felony offense...” and “causes the death of a human being without intent to effect the death of any person, while intentionally inflicting or attempting to inflict bodily harm upon the victim...”
“If you’re doing something that hurts somebody, and you know it,” Schleicher says, “you’re doing it on purpose.”
“He knew better. He just didn’t do better.”
Schleicher also says that Chauvin’s restraint ultimately constituted “assault,” which is a crime, thus governed by the first part of this statute.
Third-degree murder, under the state’s law, includes the language: “Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life...”
Schleicher says that Chauvin’s actions show “conscious indifference” to Floyd’s life.
Second-degree manslaughter, under state statute, includes: “culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another...”
Schleicher says Chauvin’s actions had a “strong probability of injury to others” resulting in Floyd’s death.
“You can look for yourself and see exactly what was happening,” he says.
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher has repeatedly implored jurors in the Derek Chauvin murder trial to trust their senses and reasoning when it comes to assessing his guilt.
Schleicher has brought up a defense witnesses’ claim that carbon monoxide from the car tailpipe near Floyd’s head might have contributed to his death. He wants jurors to focus on the fact that Chauvin continued to restrain an ailing Floyd.
"IS THAT COMMON SENSE OR NONSENSE?" Prosecutor Steve Schleicher tells the jury during closing arguments, "You're not required to accept the proposition that the car did it, that the car killed #GeorgeFloyd." #DerekChauvinTrial pic.twitter.com/R4gMeuUlcA
— Paul Blume (@PaulBlume_FOX9) April 19, 2021
"This wasn't carbon monoxide. That was just a story, and it's wrong," he says of defense bringing up the poisonous gas as a contributor to cause of death. He notes the squad car was a hybrid vehicle #GeorgeFloyd #ChauvinTrial
— Chao Xiong (@ChaoStrib) April 19, 2021
The prosecution is working to dispel arguments from Derek Chauvin’s lawyer that George Floyd died because of underlying health conditions and drug use.
Steve Schleicher has pointed out that the jury has to determine whether Chauvin’s actions were a significant cause of Floyd’s death. So, even if jurors are concerned about Floyd’s health problems, they are still able to find Chauvin guilty.
“What you have to find is that 9 minutes and 29 seconds, with knees on his neck and on his back, being held down, was a substantial factor in George Floyd’s death,” he says.
“We know how George Floyd died.”
“Believe your eyes,” he argues, stating, “unreasonable force pinning him to the ground, that’s what killed him.”
While many Americans are looking to the Derek Chauvin trial outcome as speaking more broadly about policing and accountability, prosecutor Steve Schleicher has focused on the facts of this case.
From a strategic standpoint, this makes sense: Jurors are routinely loathe to convict police accused of brutality. So, focus on Chauvin’s actions creates distance between the former officer and an institution about which some refuse to recognize longstanding problems.
In other words, Schleicher has created a situation where jurors can vote against Chauvin but remain pro-cop, if that’s how they lean.
“This case is called the state of Minnesota versus Derek Chauvin,” he says. “This case is not called the state of Minnesota versus the police.”
“Policing is a noble profession.”
“This is not an anti-police prosecution, it’s a pro-police prosecution,” he later says. “The defendant abandoned his values, abandoned his training, and killed a man...”
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher, who is now presenting the state’s closing in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, has begun his argument with an impassioned description of George Floyd’s final moments.
Schleicher has repeatedly stated “nine minutes and 29 seconds,” the amount of time Chauvin kept his knee pressed against Floyd’s neck during an arrest last spring. Floyd died after this encounter with police.
“On May 25, 2020 George Floyd died face down on the pavement,” he has told jurors. “Nine minutes and 29 seconds, nine minutes and 29 seconds. During this time, George Floyd struggled, desperate to breathe, to make enough room in his chest to breathe.”
“But the force was too much. He was trapped with the unyielding pavement underneath him, as unyielding as the men who held him down, pushing him, a knee to the neck, a knee to the back, twisting his fingers, holding his legs for nine minutes and 29 seconds, the defendant on him.”
Schleicher says that the pavement was “tearing into his skin” as Floyd struggled to breathe
“George Floyd was not a threat to anyone,” he says. “He was not trying to hurt anyone.”
“All that was required was a little compassion. And none was shown on that day.”
“What the defendant did to George Floyd killed him,” he also says.
Chauvin prosecutors start closing argument
Closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin murder trial have just started, with prosecutor Steve Schleicher now addressing the jury.
Chauvin, a White former Minneapolis police department officer, has stood trial on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, for the death of George Floyd during an arrest on 25 May 2020.
Chauvin held his knee pressed against Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Floyd, who is Black, was subdued against the ground, and restrained in the prone position. Floyd died after this encounter.
Prosecutors maintain that Chauvin’s use-of-force was improper, and that Floyd died from a lack-of-oxygen as it restricted his breathing. Chauvin’s lawyer maintains that Floyd died because of underlying heart problems and drug use.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has spoken with several attorneys about what they think prosecutors must do to prove their case.
Prof. Richard Petry, an adjunct at Mitchell Hamline Law School, tells the newspaper that prosecutors must “go element by element through each crime [Chauvin] has been charged with, and making sure you covered everything that you need to cover.”
But, Petry reportedly warns, “This jury is probably tired and has heard a lot. If they are fading off, you should probably take a cue from that.”
Prof. David Schultz, of the University of Minnesota and at Mitchell Hamline Law School in St. Paul, has also voiced the potential of juror fatigue in an interview with the newspaper.
“You don’t want to reargue the case again,” Schultz says. “I don’t think the jury wants to be sitting in the jury box until 3 in the afternoon”
The criticism of how police treat protesters across America, as well as law enforcement’s handling of journalists covering them, has intensified once again, as thousands are demonstrating against police killings.
However, protesters in New York City have won a victory in gaining protection against law enforcement, stemming from litigation that started several years ago.
Several Black Lives Matter protesters filed a lawsuit suit after being blasted with a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) during a 2014 demonstration, claiming the deployment of this device constituted excessive force and a violation of their constitutional rights, explains NBC News.
The Guardian has learned that protesters “will receive a total of $98,000” in a settlement and that a “new Administrative Guide section has been created which includes a ban on the LRAD’s alert tone,” according to city officials
Under the agreement, the protesters’ attorneys will receive $650,000 in fees and costs, city officials said this morning.
Updated
Court has just reconvened this morning in the case against Derek Chauvin. Closing arguments are expected to begin soon.
Jurors will begin deliberating when closings end. The judge in Chauvin’s case, Peter Cahill, is now giving jurors instructions on the law for when they start deliberating, such as how they are to weigh evidence.
Chauvin, a White former Minneapolis police department officer, faces charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, in the death of George Floyd during a 25 May 2020 arrest.
Chauvin kept his knee pressed against Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, while the man was subdued against the ground, and restrained in the prone position. Floyd, who is Black, died following this encounter.
Closing arguments to begin in Chauvin trial
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Derek Chauvin trial. Closing arguments in the murder case against the former Minneapolis police officer are scheduled to begin at 9am local time in Minneapolis.
Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police department officer, faces charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the 25 May 2020 death of George Floyd. During an arrest, Chauvin pressed his knee against the neck of Floyd, who was Black, for nine minutes and 29 seconds.
Floyd was pushed against the pavement, restrained and subdued while Chauvin kept his knee in place. Floyd died. He was 46. His death stoked protests for racial justice around the world.
Chauvin’s trial began in earnest on 29 March with opening statements and featured 14 days of witness testimony. The jury will start to deliberate once closings conclude and will be sequestered until it reaches a verdict.
The prosecution and Chauvin’s attorney have focused on two main themes: use-of-force and cause of death.
Prosecutors contend that Chauvin’s use of force was excessive, veering from department policy and national policing standards. They also maintain Floyd died from a lack of oxygen that resulted from police restraint.
Eric Nelson, who represents Chauvin, has posited that Floyd died from an acute cardiac event that stemmed from underlying heart conditions, methamphetamine and fentanyl use and/or a combination of these factors. Nelson has also claimed proper use of force is situational and that actions which look bad might be lawful and justified. The attorney has also said that a crowd near the arrest scene posed a risk to officers.
As Minneapolis awaits a verdict, this city and others across the US are bracing for possible protests. Demonstrations against police killings took place across the US this weekend, tensions heightened further by two recent killings.
Daunte Wright, 20, was fatally shot in a Minneapolis suburb by a white police officer during an 11 April traffic stop. The recent release of body camera footage showing the killing in Chicago of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who had his hands up, has also spurred extensive protests.
We will bring you breaking news as it happens, as well as analysis and reports from our reporters on the ground.
