Drug use, training, and witnesses were largely taken into account on the first day of the Chauvin murder trial

The world has witnessed unforgettable footage of George Floyd’s death. The viral video is the main thing Derek Chauvin’s lawyers don’t want the jury to focus on. On Monday, on the first day of Chauvin’s trial for a Minnesota murder, attorney Eric Nelson reviewed his defense of Chauvin, a former white Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering Floyd, a black man. Instead of the video, Nelson focused on Floyd’s current health issues and substance abuse, and for the prosecution, the video was the star witness. Displayed in full during the opening by attorney Jerry Blackwell, who went to Chauvin’s training and took the oath as a police officer, he inaugurated with a picture of the Minneapolis Police Department badge and the slogan, “Protect Courageously, Serve with Compassion.” Blackwell told a jury that Chauvin “betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force On George Floyd’s body. ”Floyd, 46, died last May after police responded to a call that he had submitted a fake $ 20 bill to a store. Chauvin carried Floyd face down to the floor and pressed his knee to his neck while he shouted for his mother and said over and over: “I can’t breathe.” Three other officers, Thomas Lin, Jie Alexander Quinn and Tu Thao for aiding and abetting Chauvin in August are also slated for trial. Floyd’s death sparked a national account of racial justice and led to national and international protests, some of which turned devastating. One year old, a 19-year-old Minneapolis Police Department veteran who was fired after the accident for using excessive force and is now on bail. He is charged with second- and third-degree premeditated murder and second-degree manslaughter. Charges are for a maximum of 40 years, but he faces between 11 and 15 years in prison based on state guidelines for sentencing first-time offenders. Bystander’s video debuts A disturbing video filmed by a bystander was first shown to the jury on Monday, but it likely won’t be the last. While the video was playing, a juror drew a sharp breath, and another white woman in her 50s put her hand on her temple, while a grandmother in her 60s stared intently with her forehead wrinkled when she first saw the entire video. One of the jurors, a nurse, had wide eyes while playing, and her right hand retracted while briefly clutching the armrests in her chair. Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County’s former chief of public defense, said the Public Prosecutor’s Office made good and powerful use of the visuals, photos, videos, video schedule of pedestrians and other surveillance cameras. “The visual timeline slows everything down and allows the jury to reflect,” Moriarty said, “What happened and should not have happened every step of the way.” In a line reminding us of attorney Johnny Cochran’s saying, “If it’s not right, you must acquit.” Simpson, Blackwell said repeatedly during his nearly hour-long opening statement that Chauvin was “relentless and not awake” for 9 minutes 29 seconds – even when Chauvin was told that Floyd had no pulse. Blackwell said Chauvin kept pose, sunglasses on His head and knee are on Floyd’s neck, until Floyd is placed on a stretcher.Nelson argued, “This case is clearly over 9 minutes 29 seconds” as he confirmed the numerous interviews with 50 police officers, 12 search warrants, and body camera footage, And a list of nearly 400 witnesses. “In your custody, in your care,” Blackwell showed pictures of the Minneapolis Police Department’s use of force policy and its basic principle of maintaining security, which states that someone is “in your custody, in your care.” Blackwell said, “It’s not Feeling, it’s a verb. ”It’s something you’re supposed to do. To provide care for that person. ”But Blackwell said that Chauvin had instead engaged in“ extremely dangerous activity ”and had done so without regard to the impact it had on Floyd’s life. He also said that the police are required to constantly reassess the amount of force they use against a person, based on the amount of resistance This concept is known in police action as “the use of the chain of force,” which states that officers are empowered to use a force matching a resistor and increase it enough to overpower that strength, but not more than the force needed to subdue the person. It may be reasonable in the first minute, it may not be at four … or 9 minutes and 29 seconds. ”Blackwell said Police Chief Medaria Aradondo would be called later as a witness to testify about Chauvin’s use of force, acknowledging in his opening statement that“ the police have difficult jobs . They have to make split-second decisions, ”but this case“ isn’t about all police, ”and it’s not about decisions that don’t take long. Blackwell said,“ There are 569 seconds, not a split second between them. ”The split second argument is also a reference to the standard. The “objectively reasonable” that is adhered to when measuring an officer’s behavior when measuring appropriate or inappropriate use of force, according to the Fourth Amendment and the case of Graham v. Connor. Since 1989, language regarding determining whether the use of force is reasonable and provided to jurors has been whether The procedures were reasonable given the facts and circumstances facing the officer, regardless of the officer’s original intent or motives.Nelson, in his opening argument, attempted to reach this point by portraying the situation in which Chauvin and his colleagues found themselves threatening. And, “As the crowd increased in size, it appears their anger increased as well.” Video footage shows that perhaps dozens of passers-by have finally gathered on the sidewalk as soon as Floyd is under Chauvin’s knee. Introduction” . “There are people in the back, people across the street. There are cars parked and people shouting. There is a growing crowd that the officers consider a threat.” Nelson said that the officers called the officers “f * cking bum” through shouting bystanders, causing these officers “to divert their attention from Mr. Floyd’s care. On this site, questions arise about the reasonableness of the use of force. This will eventually become a decision.” That you have to take. ” Sarah Davis, executive director of the Minneapolis Legal Rights Center, was stunned by what Nelson had to say after the jury had just seen the video that the prosecutor had broadcast and saw a timeline that showed Chauvin’s face kneeling on Floyd. A scenario where the police treat a white person this way and then call it “care”? Of course, we know this would never have happened to a white person, Davis said. But also, framing what Chauvin and the other officers have done to George Floyd as “caring” reflects deeply racist and inhuman messages. ”George Floyd and Narcotics Nelson focused on Floyd’s use of drugs, specifically opioids, making it clear that it would be a big part of the case moving forward. This tactic could be risky due to the fact that many, including the president’s son, have struggled with addiction. The prosecution did not attempt to explain Floyd’s drug use, but told the jury on Monday that “Floyd suffered from an opioid addiction.” Blackwell said such These deaths do not involve “someone crying out for their life.” Moriarty said the defense should “walk a fine line” in their arguments about Floyd’s drug use. “It is no secret to anyone that George Floyd, like many other family members, suffers from addiction.” “This is not something the state is keeping from it,” she said. Nobody is hiding from the idea that it has too much fentanyl in their system. ”The coroner noted that the amount could be fatal for some people, but Moriarty said this was“ inappropriate. ”Moriarty said:“ What is important in this particular trial is what it was. It has Chauvin’s behavior. Take your victim as you find it. It doesn’t matter that someone has a drug addiction, and they were using drugs at the time. He was suffering from a heart condition. None of this is important. What really matters is for the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Chauvin’s actions were the root cause of his death. ”Nelson said that Floyd was most likely on“ speedball, ”a mixture involving a mixture of opiates and stimulants, and he told the jury that they could see the police car Swing back and forth in street surveillance footage as the officers struggled to try to get Floyd first in the back seat of the car, before they handcuffed him, face down on the street. Because Chauvin is 5 feet 9 feet tall and weighs about 140 pounds while he’s tall Floyd is over 6 feet and weighing more than 220 pounds, Nelson said it was harder for him Chauvin to control Floyd, but Nelson said Chauvin did with one leg on Floyd’s shoulder and another on his arm. “This was not an easy struggle,” Nelson told the jury. “The use of force is not attractive,” said Cassandra Frederick, executive director of the New York-based nonprofit drug policy association, which aims to legalize all forms of illegal drug use, in a statement that it is “unreasonable, but not surprising at all.” Defense to open a file The trial argued that drugs actually killed Floyd, Frederick said: “Deep-rooted structural racism and stigma around people who use drugs are having horrific consequences across the country.” “Until we dispense with the idea that people involved in drugs – or even believed to be involved in drugs – do not guarantee the same right to dignity and life, we will continue the struggle.” What actually killed George Floyd? This is the crux of the issue. The autopsy ruling by the Hennepin County medical examiner stated that Floyd’s death was a murder, which was due to cardiopulmonary arrest complicated by “submission to law enforcement (submission), restraint and neck pressure.” The toxicology report showed fentanyl and methamphetamine in the Floyd system, and said The Federal Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, which reviewed this autopsy, “Submission and self-control contain elements of local and mechanical asphyxia.” Moriarty said the Justice Department asked the Office of Military Medical Examiners to take a look, as they were likely carrying out a federal investigation, and another separate autopsy performed by independent forensic doctors at the request of the Floyd family found that the mechanism of death was: “suffocation.” Nelson told the jury that the state was not satisfied with the autopsy results and went elsewhere for a better result. All the autopsies agreed that the cause of death was murder from the actions of police officers, and that restraint and pressure caused his death, Moriarty said, but she said they disagreed about whether it was his breathing that was cut off or that it was his brain’s blood supply that was cut off – and caused his death. , And the prosecution said she would show the jury the exact moment. Floyd stopped breathing and went into a “hypoxic episode” due to lack of oxygen, and his body made intermittent movements in response to a normal response. Blackwell also spoke of “painful breathing,” which is the reaction of the brainstem rather than real breathing. The cause of death was the main issue of the trial that the jury would have to decide, and it was suspected that Floyd had died of suffocation. He said that there were no “bruises” on Floyd’s neck so that when the skin was peeled again, the muscle level was no febrile bleeding. “What he’s been talking about are telltale signs of suffocation, but no one says he’s strangled,” Moriarty said. Nelson urged jurors to be rational, to use “common sense” and to focus on evidence. “What was the actual cause of Mister Floyd’s death?” Nelson said. “The evidence would show that Mr. Floyd died of an irregular heartbeat that occurred as a result of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, taking methamphetamine and fentanyl, and the adrenaline flowing through his body – all of which led to a further waiver of someone who was already injured.” There is no political or social reason in this court. ” He said Chauvin “did exactly what he was trained to do over the course of his 19-year career.” Follow USA TODAY national reporter Tammy Abdullah, who is covering Derek Chauvin’s trial, on latams