{"id":2869,"date":"2021-04-02T10:23:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T07:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theinvolvement.wordpress.com\/?p=2869"},"modified":"2021-04-02T10:23:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T07:23:20","slug":"derek-chauvin-trial-what-you-should-know-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/2021\/04\/02\/derek-chauvin-trial-what-you-should-know-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Chauvin Trial: What You Should Know So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Nicholas Kweyu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(nicholaskweyu99@gmail.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Derek Chauvin (right) and his defense attorney Eric Nelson – USA Today <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin\u2019s trial for the murder of George Floyd began on Monday. The incident which occurred in May 2020 sparked widespread protests against police brutality and racism as the white police officer was caught on video holding his knee against the neck of the black victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chauvin is now facing charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter all for which he has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just prior to the beginning of the trial, Floyd\u2019s family, their lawyer, Benjamin Crump, and the Reverend Al Sharpton took a knee outside a county government center for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. This was the estimated amount of time that Chauvin had knelt on Floyd\u2019s neck and has now come to symbolize the latter\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During opening statements, the prosecutor, Jerry Black well, played a video recorded by a bystander showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd while restraining him and stating that it was \u201ca homicide\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn May 25th of 2020, Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of Mr. George Floyd,\u201d said Blackwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Floyd family attorney Ben Crump (center), Reverend Al Sharpton (third from right) and members of George Floyd\u2019s family take the knee outside the courthouse on the first day of the trial -Craig Lassig <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Countering the claim that Chauvin directly caused Floyd\u2019s death, Derek Chauvin\u2019s Defense attorney Eric Nelson stated that Floyd\u2019s death was caused by a cardiac arrhythmia which was caused by a number of factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These included the use of drugs, Floyd\u2019s pre-existing coronary disease and adrenaline which all \u201cacted to further compromise an already compromised heart\u201d. Nelson also told the jury that the use of force while not attractive, was a necessary component of policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jury has now heard testimony from eleven witnesses as of the third day of the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

911 dispatcher Jena Lee Scurry testified on Monday and said how she watched the surveillance footage of the officers restraining George Floyd. She noted that the officers had held him down for so long that she asked someone \u201cif the screens were frozen\u201d. Following an instinct that something was not right, she said she called the sergeant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Williams, an MMA fighter who testified on Tuesday, said that he witnessed Chauvin holding Floyd in a \u201cblood choke\u201d. He admitted to calling 911 after Floyd was taken away on an ambulance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did call the police on the police,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe I had witnessed a murder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe man stopped breathing. He wasn\u2019t resisting arrest or nothing. He was already in handcuffs. They pretty much just killed that dude \u2014 I don\u2019t even know if he\u2019s dead for sure, but he was not responsive when the ambulance just came and got him,\u201d Williams said on the audio of the call which was played in the courtroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the same day, Daniella Frazier, who recorded the video of Floyd\u2019s arrest that went viral, also testified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI heard George Floyd saying \u2018I can\u2019t breathe. Please, get off of me. I can\u2019t breathe.\u2019 He cried for his mom. He was in pain,\u201d she said<\/a>. \u201cIt seemed like he knew, it seemed like he knew it was over for him. He was terrified. He was suffering. This was a cry for help, definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, the court heard testimony from Christopher Martin, the Cup Food Cashier who had served Floyd on the day of the incident. Martin testified that he noticed the $20 bill that Floyd paid with was fake but he still accepted it. He said that Floyd seemed high and therefore was not aware that the bill was fake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought I\u2019d be doing him a favour,\u201d said Martin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went on to recount how his manager asked him and another employee to follow Floyd and ask him to come back inside to discuss the situation. When Floyd refused, a coworker called 911.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the fourth day of the trial, George Floyd\u2019s girlfriend, Courtney Ross, testified of their shared issues with opioids sparing no details. She even recounted past overdose episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We both tried really hard to break that addiction many times,” she said but added that she believes addiction to be a lifelong struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ross said that they both became addicted to opioids after suffering from chronic back pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
In this image from video, witness Courtney Ross answers questions as Hennepin County Judge Peter\u00a0Cahill presides Thursday, April 1, 2021, in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd – Court TV via AP, Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although seemingly helpful to Chauvin\u2019s case, airing Floyd\u2019s drug struggle was apparently a legal maneuver by prosecutors according to former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey’re educating the jury about the fact even if the drugs in George Floyd’s system contributed in some way to his death, that importantly he was brought back in earlier overdose situations with medical treatment which wasn’t provided here.” Said Vance following Ross\u2019 testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trial is set to run for about four weeks with the case being made up of 12 jurors. For their safety, the jurors\u2019 faces will not be revealed on camera and they will not be referred to by name despite the trial being recorded and broadcast. The only information available about the members of the jury is that they are diverse in age and ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Star-Tribune<\/em><\/a>, the jury includes \u201ca multi-race woman in her 20s, a multi-race woman in her 40s, two Black men in their 30s, a Black man in his 40s, a Black woman in her 60s, four white women in their 50s, a white woman in her 40s, a white woman in her 20s, a white man in his 30s and two white men in their 20s.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Nicholas Kweyu (nicholaskweyu99@gmail.com) Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin\u2019s trial for the murder of George Floyd began on Monday. The incident which occurred in May 2020 sparked widespread protests against police brutality and racism as the white police officer was caught on video holding his knee against the neck of the black victim. Chauvin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}