‘Believe your eyes’, George Floyd jurors told as trial concludes

Racial tensions are high across the US as jurors in former police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial over the murder of George Floyd start deliberations.

George Floyd is held down by the knee of former police officer Derek Chauvin in footage which went viral and say Chauvin on trial for his murder. Pictures: Supplied

The jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd was told to “believe your eyes” and find the police officer guilty of murdering the black father of five as the prosecution summed up its case on Monday.

“What you saw, you saw … the defendant pressed down on George Floyd so his lungs did not have room to breathe,” Steve Schleicher said, emphasising the nine minutes and 29 seconds that Floyd was restrained under Chauvin’s knee.

Arguing that the evidence proved that Chauvin had gone beyond reasonable force to meet the standard of assault required for conviction, he told the court in Minneapolis: “This was not policing, this was murder.”

Eric Nelson, defending, argued that Chauvin had behaved as any “reasonable” officer would. He asked the jury to look at the case through the eyes of an officer called out to deal with a suspect he was told was “large and possibly under the influence of alcohol or something else”. Chauvin arrived on the scene to find that two officers had been unable to contain Floyd in the back of a police car, Nelson said, and made the “reasonable” decision that a higher level of force was required.

The jury was due to be sent to a hotel on Monday night to consider its verdict in a trial being watched nervously across America and likely to have implications for the future of policing and race relations.

City on edge

Minneapolis is on edge with the National Guard deployed on the streets and razor wire around the court. Tensions were raised after the death of another black man last week when a police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright, 20, a few miles from the court. The officer has been charged with manslaughter.

“This case is exactly what you thought when you saw it first, when you saw that video. You can believe your eyes,” said Steve Schleicher, a special assistant lawyer general for the prosecution, focusing its case on the nine minutes and 29 seconds Mr. Floyd was held on the ground. “It’s what you felt in your gut. What you now know in your heart. This wasn’t policing. It was murder.”

A man rides a tricycle near the courthouse during the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd. Picture: Chandan Khanna/AFP

Schleicher sought to focus the jury on the case before them by summing up the ways that, he said, Chauvin had broken the force’s rules on restraint and failed to act in a reasonable manner. “The defendant had 800 hours of training — you met the people who staff the training centre and they told you, ‘We don’t train this’,” Schleicher said. “He betrayed the badge … This is not an anti-police case, this is a pro-police case. The defendant abandoned his values, abandoned his training.”

‘I can’t breathe’

Floyd’s shouts of “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for protesters across the US last summer and Schleicher reminded the jury that Chauvin’s chief officer, Medaria Arradondo, testified that the use of force was excessive. He played a video clip of Chauvin responding to Floyd by saying: “It takes a lot of oxygen to say that.”

For the defence, Nelson reminded the jury of testimony that some suspects feigned a medical emergency to avoid arrest, adding that Floyd shouted “I can’t breathe” seven times while he was trying to escape the police car before he was restrained on the road.

Chauvin, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

In this image from video, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin listens as his defense attorney Eric Nelson gives closing arguments. Picture: Supplied

All three charges require the jury to conclude that his actions were a “substantial causal factor” in Floyd’s death and that his use of force was unreasonable.

The jury’s verdict must be unanimous to secure conviction.

To convict Chauvin of second-degree murder, prosecutors do not have to prove that Chauvin intended to kill Floyd, only that he deliberately applied force which resulted in harm.

Second-degree murder can carry up to 40 years in prison, third-degree murder 25 years, and second-degree manslaughter ten years.

For the first time during the trial, Chauvin removed his mask so the jury could see his face as Nelson began his remarks.

Viral video

In closing arguments, prosecutors used five clips of video showing Floyd begging with officers not to put him in the police car, of Chauvin ignoring requests from the crowd to provide aid to Floyd and a fellow officer who asked whether they should turn him over. They also presented autopsy photos previously presented only to the jury showing scrapes and bruises to Floyd’s face, shoulder and knuckles as he was pressed against the street.

Viral video of Floyd’s death triggered a summer of unrest last year in Minneapolis and across the country. State and city leaders have been working for months on a plan to prevent another wave of unrest.

Concerns over violence grew last week after a police officer in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright when she appeared to mistake her gun for a Taser, setting off some looting of stores and several nights of protests.

The jurors will remain sequestered until they reach a verdict or become deadlocked and can’t.

— The Times (with Agencies)