Jury mulls fate of Derek Chauvin after court sees unseen pictures of George Floyd’s injuries

The jury will now mull over the fate of the cop accused of killing George Floyd, after never-seen-before photos were shown in court. WARNING: GRAPHIC

Jurors have begun mulling the fate of the white ex-Minneapolis policeman accused of killing African-American George Floyd, a death that sparked a nationwide reckoning on racism and which prosecutors called a “shocking abuse of authority”.

“You must be absolutely fair,” Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill said in his final instructions to the 12-member jury hearing the case against former officer Derek Chauvin. “Consider and weigh the evidence and apply the law.”

Mr Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter over Floyd’s May 25, 2020 death, which sparked protests against racial injustice around the world and has become a landmark test of police accountability in the United States.

George Floyd died after being restrained in Minneapolis. Picture: Supplied

He was captured on video kneeling on the neck of Mr Floyd as he was pinned facedown handcuffed on the ground for more than nine minutes complaining “I can’t breathe.”

In his instructions to the jury, the judge touched on the significance of the case, which comes amid heightened tensions fueled by other police killings.

“You must not let bias, prejudice, passion, sympathy or public opinion influence your decision,” Mr Cahill said.

“You must not consider any consequences or penalties that might follow from your verdict.”

It came after the court was shown never-seen-before photos of Mr Floyd’s injuries.

The evidence showed bruises to the left side of his face, as well as his bloodied shoulder and knuckles.

Derek Chauvin trial for killing George Floyd, evidence exhibits. Never-before-seen evidence photos of George Floyd were revealed in court Monday

Derek Chauvin trial for killing George Floyd, evidence exhibits. Never-before-seen evidence photos of George Floyd were revealed in court Monday.

Prosecutors, in closing arguments to the jury, which will be sequestered during deliberations, also repeatedly showed the harrowing video which was seen by millions around the world.

“This case is exactly what you thought when you saw it first, when you saw that video,” prosecutor Steve Schleicher told the jury.

“You can believe your eyes,” Mr Schleicher said. “It’s exactly what you knew, it’s what you felt in your gut, it’s what you now know in your heart.”

“This wasn’t policing, this was murder,” Mr Schleicher said. “Nine minutes and 29 seconds of shocking abuse of authority.

“The defendant is guilty of all three counts. And there’s no excuse.”

Defense attorney Eric Nelson told the jury they need to look at Mr Chauvin’s actions “from the perspective of a reasonable police officer.”

“He did not purposefully use unlawful force,” Mr Nelson said.

“This was not a neck restraint. This was not a choke hold.”

Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng also face charges in connection with Floyd’s death.

They are to be tried separately later in the year.

CHAUVIN DID NOT TESTIFY

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd by keeping his knee on his neck for nine minutes, has told a judge he won’t testify in his own trial.

Mr Chauvin invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify on Thursday (local time) as the trial of George Floyd’s death neared its final stages.

Mr Chauvin told the judge it was his decision and his decision alone not to testify. Questioning from his lawyer Eric Nelson suggested a tense debate on the issue.

“I have advised you, and (to say that) we have gone back and forth on the matter would be kind of an understatement, wouldn’t it?” Mr Nelson asked.

“Yes it is,” Mr Chauvin said.

If Mr Chauvin had chosen to testify, prosecutors would have been allowed to cross-examine him.

It comes as both the prosecution and the defence rested on Thursday with judge Peter Cahill saying he would hear closing arguments on Monday (local time).

After the defence rested its case, prosecutors called Dr Martin Tobin, the pulmonologist who testified last week, to take the stand again for a rebuttal against the defence’s medical expert.

Dr Tobin, a pulmonologist, has previously testified for the prosecution that Mr Floyd “died from a low-level of oxygen and this caused damage to his brain … and it also caused a [pulseless electrical activity] arrhythmia that caused his heart to stop.”

Dr Tobin also said that “a healthy person subjected to what Mr Floyd was subjected to would have died”.

Dr Tobin rebutted a defence witness’s assertion on Wednesday that Floyd might have suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning during his arrest.

REBUTTAL: State immediately asks Dr. Tobin to clear up issue of oxygen saturation in #GeorgeFloyd at time of death. Argues blood test results that are on the record show Floyd had 98% oxygen saturation. Meaning CO could only=2%. Meaning Dr. Fowler's defense conclusions were wrong pic.twitter.com/MPYiTbgY0V

— Paul Blume (@PaulBlume_FOX9) April 15, 2021

JUDGE ‘WON’T ACQUIT’ COP

Mr Chauvin, who is white, was seen in a video taken by a bystander kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as the handcuffed 46-year-old Black man complained repeatedly that he “can’t breathe.”

Defence lawyer Eric Nelson said prosecutors had failed to prove their case against the 45-year-old Chauvin beyond a reasonable doubt and he should be acquitted.

The motion is a standard request in criminal trials at the end of the presentation of the prosecution case and it was rejected by Judge Peter Cahill.

“The motion for judgment of acquittal is denied,” Justice Cahill said.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

Defence lawyers at the murder trial claimed on Wednesday that exhaust fumes from a police vehicle at the scene contributed to George Floyd’s police custody death.

David Richard Fowler, a retired Maryland forensics expert, told jurors that while Mr Floyd did not die from carbon monoxide poisoning, it was a “contributing condition” in his May 25 death while pinned down.

“His face was facing towards the vehicle, towards the rear of the vehicle, and directly towards the area where you would expect the tailpipe or the tailpipes of the vehicle to be,” Mr Fowler testified.

“Let me ask you,” Mr Chauvin’s lawyer Eric Nelson said. “Are you suggesting that Mr. Floyd died from carbon monoxide poisoning?”

“Absolutely not, no,” Fowler answered. “Not a full carbon monoxide poisinong. No.”

But he also noted that he did not believe the coroner who performed Floyd’s autopsy checked his blood for carbon monoxide.

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes when he arrested him in May, 2020. Picture: AFP

KNEE ON NECK WAS ‘JUSTIFIED’ SAYS DEFENCE

Mr Chauvin’s decision to put his knee on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes was “justified”, a former police officer and use-of-force expert has testified.

Barry Brodd, who has reportedly been paid $11,400 ($A14,900) for his work on the case, is the first to offer this interpretation after medical and police training experts for the prosecution all testified the police officer’s use of force was unreasonable.

“I felt that Officer Chauvin’s interactions with Mr Floyd were following his training, following current practices in policing, and were objectively reasonable,” Mr Brodd told Hennepin County District Court.

Mr Brodd said the prone position, which saw Mr Floyd pressed against the ground, was the safest for officers and suspect.

“If the officer is justified in using the prone control, the maintaining of the prone control is not a use of force. It’s a control technique,” he testified.

Mr Brodd said “it doesn’t hurt”, but conceded after further questioning that it was possible the position could cause pain.

He said he felt Mr Chauvin was following “Minneapolis Police Department policy and current standards of law enforcement”, which in part was in contrast to what the city’s police chief Medaria Arradono testified last week.

Mr Arradondo told the court there was an “initial reasonableness in trying to get him under control in the first few seconds”, but it was not part of the force’s policy to use the prone position for an extended period.

Booking photo of police officer Derek Chauvin charged in the death of George Floyd. Picture: Ramsey County Jail / Twitter

“Once there was no longer any resistance, and clearly when Mr Floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless, to continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no way shape or form is by policy, is not part of our training, and is certainly not part of our ethics or values,” Mr Arradondo testified last week.

After the prosecution rested its case, Mr Nelson began his presentation by calling a retired police officer to the witness stand.

The former officer was involved in an arrest of Floyd a year earlier during which it was established that Floyd had taken illegal drugs.

Chauvin’s defence claims Mr Floyd’s death was due to his consumption of fentanyl and methamphetamine and underlying health conditions.

Medical experts called by the prosecution said Mr Floyd’s death was caused by a “low level of oxygen” from the neck restraint and not due to drugs or pre-existing conditions.

Police officers are rarely convicted in the United States when facing criminal charges and a conviction on any of the counts against Chauvin will require the nine-woman, five-man jury to return a unanimous verdict.

Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge — second-degree murder.

A 19-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, Chauvin was fired from the force after Mr Floyd’s death.

Three other former police officers involved in the arrest are to be tried separately later this year.

FLOYD’S DEATH ‘ABSOLUTELY PREVENTABLE’

It comes as the brother of Mr Floyd testified that his sibling’s death “was absolutely preventable” and a prominent cardiologist said there is no evidence a drug overdose caused the black man’s death.

Dr Jonathan Rich, the cardiologist who has reviewed medical records in Mr Floyd’s murder case, told the Hennepin County District Court that different actions could have been taken could have saved the 46-year-old black man’s life.

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is facing murder and manslaughter charges for his role in Mr Floyd’s May 25, 2020 death, which occurred during his arrest for allegedly passing a fake $20 bill.

Dr Rich told the court on Monday (local time) he believed Mr Floyd “would have survived that day” if he had not been restrained in such a way.

During his testimony, he also dismissed claims by Mr Chauvin’s defence team that Mr Floyd’s death was due to his consumption of the illegal drugs fentanyl and methamphetamine and underlying health conditions.

“I can state with a high degree of medical certainty that George Floyd did not die from a primary cardiac event and he did not die from a drug overdose,” Dr Rich said.

Philonise Floyd (L), brother of George Floyd. Picture: AFP

Mr Floyd’s brother, Philonise, broke down as he took the stand, remembering his brother as a “big mama’s boy”.

In his emotional testimony, he described the moment Mr Floyd learned his mother had died.

Mr Floyd was talking to her on the phone, but she passed before he reached her.

“And when we went to the funeral, it’s just — George just sat there at the casket over and over again, he would just say ‘mama, mama,’ over and over again,” he said.

“And I didn’t know what to tell him, because I was in pain, too. We all were hurting. And he was just kissing her, and just kissing her. He didn’t want to leave the casket.”
He described Mr Floyd as a “leader” who was loved by his family and community.

“He was so much of a leader to us in the household. He would always make sure that we had our clothes for school,” he said.

“He made sure that we all were going to be to school on time. And like I told you, George couldn’t cook. But he will make sure you have a snack or something to get in the morning. “But he — he was one of those people in the community that when they had church outside, people would attend church just because he was there. Nobody would go out there until they seen him. And he just was like a person that everybody loved around the community. He — he just knew how to make people feel better.”

Community leaders speak to the media outside the Brooklyn Centre Police Station after a police officer shot and killed a Black man. Picture: AFP

It came as the judge presiding over the George Floyd murder trial in Minneapolis denied a defence request to sequester the jury, dismissing suggestions they could be swayed by a night of unrest over the shooting of a young Black man by the city’s police.

Judge Peter Cahill said he expected closing arguments to begin next week in the high-profile trial of Mr Chauvin.

Eric Nelson, Mr Chauvin’s lawyer, said he was concerned that the protests in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center over the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright could influence the nine-woman, five-man jury.

“A verdict in this case is going to have consequences,” Mr Nelson said. “Will the jury be confident to make a decision regardless of the potential outcome of their decision?” Prosecutors opposed the request to sequester the jury and so did the judge. “This is a totally different case,” Justice Cahill said. “I’m not going to sequester them. We’ll sequester them on Monday when I anticipate doing closings.”

US police fatally shot a young Black man, sparking protests not far from where a former police officer was on trial for the murder of George Floyd. Picture: AFP

The latest protests occurred in Brooklyn Centre, a suburb of Minneapolis not far from the heavily guarded Hennepin County Government Center where Chauvin is on trial.

Police fired tear gas and flash bangs to disperse a crowd of hundreds of people who gathered outside a police station in Brooklyn Centre.

National Guard troops were deployed and mayor Mike Elliott imposed an overnight curfew.

“We want to make sure everyone is safe,” the mayor tweeted. “Please be safe and please go home.”

Mike Elliott (L), the new mayor of Brooklyn Center looks to Tim Gannon, Brooklyn Centre Police Chief (R) during press conference. Picture: AFP

Mr Wright’s mother told a crowd on Sunday evening, local time, that her son had called her to say he had been pulled over by police.

Katie Wright said she heard officers tell her son to put his phone down, and then one of the officers ended the call. Soon after, her son’s girlfriend told her he had been shot.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the administration was “incredibly saddened to hear about the loss of life at the hands of law enforcement.” “It is a reminder of the pain, the anger, the trauma, the exhaustion that many communities across the country have felt,” she said.

According to the Brooklyn Centre Police Department, officers pulled over a driver for a traffic violation.

Community members watch body footage cam at the Brooklyn Centre Police Station after a police officer shot and killed a Black man. Picture: AFP

When they discovered he had an outstanding warrant, they tried to take him into custody, the department said in a statement.

He got back into his car, and one of the officers fired their weapon, striking the driver, who died at the scene.

A female passenger in the car suffered “non-life threatening injuries,” the statement said.

John Harrington, Minnesota’s commissioner of public safety, said about 20 businesses were looted at a local mall overnight and additional National Guard troops would be deployed on Monday.

Mayor Elliott called the shooting “tragic”, while Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said the state “mourns another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement.”