12FLOYD FACEOFF
Sides spar over cause of his death as trial starts
Derek Chauvin “betrayed” his badge and murdered George Floyd last May by “grinding and crushing” his knee into the unarmed Black man’s neck as bystanders begged him to stop, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.
Jerry Blackwell, of the Minnesota attorney general’s office, wasted no time showing the harrowing bystander video of Floyd’s fatal arrest as opening statements kicked off in Chauvin’s long-awaited trial in Minneapolis.
The prosecutor said the now-fired police officer, 45, pinned Floyd to the pavement for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, substantially longer than the 8-minute-and-46-second duration reported earlier in the investigation that became a symbol of the case.
“You will learn that on May 25, 2020, Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of Mr. George Floyd, that he put his knees upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him until the very breath — no, ladies and gentlemen, until the very life — was squeezed out of him,” Blackwell told the jury.
“You will learn that he was well aware that Mr. Floyd was unarmed, that Mr. Floyd had not threatened anyone, that Mr. Floyd was in handcuffs, he was completely in the control of the police, he was defenseless,” the prosecutor argued.
Chauvin’s lawyer presented a dueling account of Floyd’s death when it was his turn to deliver the defense opening statement Monday.
Seeking to divert jurors’ attention away from the graphic video, he said the sprawling investigation included roughly 50,000 pieces of evidence.
“This case is clearly more than about 9 minutes and 29 seconds,” lawyer Eric Nelson argued as he pushed the defense position that Chauvin followed his training and that Floyd’s cause of death was actually an accidental drug overdose linked to heart disease.
The conflicting narratives offered a glimpse of the courtroom battle that will play out over the next few weeks in a case seen as an inflection point in the U.S. reckoning with systemic racism.
Blackwell told the jury — which includes four Black people and two identified as multiracial — that he plans to prove Chauvin used “unnecessary force or violence” and should be found guilty of the charges of second-degree murder, second-degree
manslaughter murder.
Chauvin, the first of four officers to face trial in the case, appeared to be taking detailed notes on a yellow pad as he listened to the opening statements and first witness testimony of the day.
The trial is taking place at the heavily fortified Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis and is expected to last about four weeks.
“Today starts a landmark trial that will be a referendum on how far America has come in its quest for equality and justice for all,” Floyd family lawyer Ben Crump said at a rally Monday morning.
In video of the arrest, Floyd, a father of five, repeatedly said “I can’t breathe” and cried out for his late mother.
Floyd, 46, was pronounced dead shortly after the incident, with an official autopsy listing his cause of death as “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
Chauvin’s lawyer told jurors Monday that Floyd’s “actual cause of death” will be a “significant battle in this trial.”
He said two friends who were with Floyd that night — Shawanda Hill and Maurice Hall — are expected to testify that Floyd consumed “what were thought to be two Percocet pills” before his arrest.
“The evidence will show that Mr. Floyd died of a cardiac arrhythmia
and
third-degree that occurred as a result of hypertension, his coronary disease, the ingestion of methamphetamine and fentanyl and the adrenaline flowing through his body,” Nelson told the jury.
Blackwell acknowledged in his statement that Floyd did have an opioid addiction and a heart condition, but he said there’s no denying Floyd was “pancaked” between the pavement and Chauvin’s knee when he stopped breathing.
Floyd said he couldn’t breathe a staggering 27 times on the video and remained pressed facedown on the ground for about four minutes after he became unresponsive, Blackwell said.
“The evidence is going to show
that there was no cause to use force in the first place,” Blackwell said, noting to jurors that there’s no proof Floyd even knew that the $20 bill he used to buy cigarettes at Cup Foods that night was counterfeit.
He said some people, including a 911 dispatcher, “called the police on the police” after seeing the horrific scene playing out in the street.
Nelson, meanwhile, tried to plant reasonable doubt by claiming Floyd posed a physical threat to his arresting officers.
“You will see that three Minneapolis police officers could not overcome the strength of Mr. Floyd,” Nelson said. “Mr. Chauvin stands 5-[feet]-9” and 140 pounds. Mr. Floyd is 6-[feet]3 and 223 pounds . ... This was not an easy struggle.”
The lawyer also suggested the “angry” bystanders played a role in Floyd’s death by distracting the cops.
“They’re screaming at them, causing the officers to divert their attention from the care of Mr. Floyd to the threat that was growing in front of them,” he said, claiming Chauvin acted appropriately amid a fluid scene with multiple threats.
“You will learn that Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over the course of his 19-year career,” he argued. “Use of force is not attractive, but it is a necessary component of policing.”
The jury, who will not be shown on camera, includes eight people who identify themselves as white, four as Black and two as multiracial, according to the court.