Oliver Laughland – The Guardian Apr 20, 2021
The trial saw 44 witnesses and 15 days of testimony. And, in the end, less than a day to decide that Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer, was guilty of murdering George Floyd.
It is a landmark moment not just in the history of US policing and criminal justice, but around the world. George Floyd’s death came to embody the struggle for racial justice and equality in so many ways they are impossible to condense: from forceful calls for police reform in Minneapolis and new legislation in Washington, to a reckoning on the history of British imperialism in the UK and a resurgence in activism over Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia.
The evidence had always been overwhelming. But despite the multitudes of exhibits displayed at trial, it was that single cellphone video, shot by a teenage girl who wept on the stand as she describing witnessing George Floyd die, that continues to most vividly depict the details of Derek Chauvin’s crimes.
Floyd calls for his mother. He tells the officers who pin his body to the pavement for nine minutes and 29 seconds that he cannot breathe. And still Chauvin presses his knee into Floyd’s neck, his hands in his pockets and sunglasses perched on his head, a use of fatal force that continued for minutes after officers could no longer feel his pulse.
As prosecutor Jerry Blackwell told jurors on Monday, after they had heard from the defense that George Floyd had died as a result of his enlarged heart.
“… you know the truth. And the truth of the matter is, that the reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr Chauvin’s heart was too small.”
Securing a conviction in the rare instances that officer-involved fatalities make it to criminal trial has always been an uphill battle for prosecutors. Law enforcement officials in the US are endowed by a swath of protections; from ambiguous legal definitions over the proportionate use of force, to powerful police union agreements, and the many biases that stem from fundamental conflicts of interest in the system.
But from the moment the trial of Derek Chauvin trial began, it was clear that these proceedings were different from many that had come before.
Does Chauvin have an appeal due to malpractice from his attorney?
I wonder if Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson is incompetent or if he decided not to gave his best effort for Chauvin.
Was Nelson afraid if he appeared to give a strong defense for Chauvin he risked his life due to the BLM maniacs? Was he concerned his friends, neighbors, relatives, the majority of Americans, people throughout the world may hate hate him? Did he think providing a strong defense of Chauvin would destroy his life?
I suggest you read these comments from Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He is currently an NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst.
His comments:
During the defense closing, attorney Eric Nelson struggled to find some kernel of doubt to deliver to the jury in hopes of finding a juror or two who would hold out for acquittal.
Unfortunately for Chauvin, his attorney took what little evidence he had and made even less of it. Representing an unpopular client in a horrific, high-profile case is extremely challenging for defense attorneys. But having tried more than 50 murder cases in the courts of Washington, D.C., I’ve seen defense attorneys navigate those difficult waters without insulting the witnesses or the common sense of the jurors. Nelson let the choppy tactical waters get the best of him.
Nelson had a real opportunity to use to Chauvin’s significant advantage Dr. Andrew Baker’s curious autopsy findings. Baker did not conclude Floyd died from low oxygen levels or from asphyxia. He ruled that the cause of death was “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
That phraseology might seem a mangled mouthful, but it was an evidentiary goldmine from which Nelson could not extract the value. He could and should have argued the following:
Baker was the only medical professional who performed the autopsy. The only medical professional who has a firsthand, informed opinion about Floyd’s injuries, or lack thereof. And in Baker’s expert, informed opinion, George Floyd did not die of asphyxia. Rather, he died of cardiopulmonary arrest, which, by his own words, “complicated” the attempts by law enforcement to restrain him. And that is precisely why the prosecutors buried Baker way down in the trial batting order.
But Nelson chose another tactical path. He attacked the prosecution’s other medical expert witnesses, saying their testimony was “preposterous” when he simply could have said their opinions contradicting Baker were well intentioned but less important than the opinion of the man who actually performed the autopsy.
Let’s be honest, as good as Dr. Martin Tobin, the lovable pulmonologist with the Irish lilt, was, it’s a tactical blunder to dismiss his testimony as “preposterous.” Rather, I would have argued that Tobin, while a great choice to evaluate my sick child, simply did not have the right experience. There’s a reason the medical profession doesn’t allow pulmonologists to make cause and manner of death determinations.
But consider the second day of trial, when Darnella Frazier took the stand. She was the girl, then 17 years old, who took the bystander video and uploaded it to social media, where it went viral, drawing hundreds of thousands into the streets around the country and world to protest police brutality and starting some riots that set places like neighborhoods in Minneapolis ablaze.
Tearfully, recalled in her testimony the more-than nine minutes that she watched George Floyd struggling under the knee of Chauvin. Until Floyd struggled no more. She recalled how this could have been any number of her family members since they, too, are Black.
“When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad, I look at my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles,” Frazier said. She said she has stayed up some nights “apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life.”
But, she said, “it’s not what I should have done. It’s what he (Chauvin) should have done.”
Nelson did not object to cut off the emotional testimony — something that could be grounds for appeal, said Chicago defense attorney Craig Tobin.
Brian USA: Why didn’t Nelson object to the emotional testimony?
It won’t stop people dying at the hands of the police but it may make a few cops wary of callously murdering someone when it wasn’t necessary because just about anybody nearby could video it.
wow….a man quite literally kills a man on camera and and you argue about the dead man being classed as a ‘victim’. Having a criminal record does not make you less of a human being or mean your killing is somehow more justified. Nor does a history of using or being addicted to prescription drugs. This speculation, which is all it is, that he died form a drug overdose and not the illegal and criminal action of the police officer who was filmed doing what he did, leads me to question the objectivity of this article George Floyd was fine and sat in his car until he was dragged out of it. A man died because the State killed him, but you would rather peddle some other theory in pursuit of your desperate desire to believe that your society is under attack by the hordes who don’t share your level of melanin. This is getting pretty pathetic. Officer Chauvin was a bad cop and this is a bad article effectively trying to defend a bad cop. shame on you
Police are not allowed to do their job, just enforce holocough rules and attack the victims of crime. Justice would begin when they were removed.
Completely insane verdict that had to happen.
Otherwise, athletic shoes and caskets would be on substantial back order.
Chauvin was convicted of killing George Floyd three times, which is insane on its face.
Once the first guilty plea is found on the most severe offense, the jury should have stopped.
So this verdict gets appealed and in some respects overturned. Does Chauvin walk? Depends on the timing of the appeal.
The judge signaled mistrial from Ms. Maxine Waters’ (paid actor? who paid?) theatrics, but did not dismiss for mistrial. Set up for appeal.
The PTB got the judgement they wanted.
The rioters got the judgement they wanted and are appeased, but still pissed off for good reason (although introspection is not their strong suit. Divided.
Those with a common sense of order are pissed off for good reason. Divided.
The cops are pissed off because the verdict ran counter to their training. Divided.
Now the cops will feel justified banging heads harder in any confrontation. Some will simply walk away.
The race baiters perceived a victory to push even harder. Divided.
The PTB have taken the focus off of themselves for the continued rampant asset stripping of the American people.
The fact that few can see this is perhaps the biggest problem of all.
Wake up.
One and Done.
Too many people on the Far Right are disappointed with the guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin. However, the fact remains that George Floyd would still be alive had Chauvin not purposely chose to use such brute force in subduing an already surrendered suspect. If Chauvin was black and George Floyd was white, there would be greater outrage among the Caucasian populace of the US and beyond.
Here in the UK, the UK Border Agency and the Home Office regularly murder Black asylum seekers when transporting them for deportation. To date, not one single UK Border Agency staff member or their contracted security agents have be tried or even charged for these broad daylight White on Black killings in the name of border control.
Whether in South Africa with Apartheid, in Australia with the Aborigine genocide and the Stolen Generation or in the US with the genocide of Ameri Indians and the enslavement and suppression of Blacks for over 400 years, it’s normal, commonplace and widely acceptable for White people to oppress, maim and kill Black people.
The US is built on the enslavement, dehumanising, exploitation and suppression of Black people. If the roles were reversed, how would White people feel? It is due to this collective indifference to the plight of Black people that the riots and the uprisings will never stop until organised White Supremacy recognises, accepts and regards Black people as human and deserving of their God given rights to liberty, security of person and self-determination.
“the UK Border Agency and the Home Office regularly murder Black asylum seekers when transporting them for deportation”.
Really? Can you actually cite any cases to substantiate that claim?
According to Oscar S.:
“…your desperate desire to believe that your society is under attack by the hordes who don’t share your level of melanin.”
Sorry to upset your preconceptions about race but I COME FROM A MIXED RACE FAMILY.
I think the cop did humanity a favour. There’s a long list of Floyds victims and he could add people to that list several times a day. He was, like so many people today, Black, White, of whatever skin colour, a piece of human excrement who lived as parasite on the productive members of society. We can’t carry them anymore. Any encounter with them has a negative outcome, like dealing with pikeys. They’re always looking for a way to extract something from someone. Maybe the coming cull is just in time.
@ Brian USA
There will be an appeal to a higher court but not for attorney malpractice. ( Good point ) The autopsy shows cause of death is other than asphyxiation, for which, he was charged. The truth has not been put on display and accepted yet. If and when that occurs the verdict will be different and the riots will most probably commence after being primed by the MSM, Maxine Waters et al, and upcoming false flag events that will sway the public even farther away from the truth.
The Propaganda is a very powerful weapon. We are repeating recent history. And some wonder how the German people and the rest of the world were kept oblivious to what was and what wasn’t going on. We are witnessing subliminal suggestion and mind control in live action.
@Rickson Stewart
Here’s at least 3 articles detailing the murder of Black asylum seekers by the UK Border Agency and their contracted security agents. The UK is institutionally racist so the bigwigs readily sweep such matters under rug. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle fled the UK for this reason.
Most White people are indifferent to White on Black racism because 1. It’s not their problem 2. It doesn’t affect anyone of their kindred. So I don’t expect you to be concerned about White on Black racism either:
https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/15/home-offices-detention-policies-found-to-be-in-breach-of-human-rights-14415998/
https://theferret.scot/revealed-16-asylum-seekers-died-six-months/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-54226239
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/15/revealed-shocking-death-toll-of-asylum-seekers-in-home-office-accommodation
2 things I see here in some of the comments: The immediate assumption that Chauvin’s actions were automatically racially based since Floyd was Black. Of course a study of Chauvin’s history of arrests may or may not support this premise. (2) “If Chauvin was black and George Floyd was white, there would be greater outrage among the Caucasian populace of the US and beyond.” could be the case but I seriously doubt it on the grounds that the mass media would never have covered the event to such national levels or hardly at all……. because it would not fit into the current anti White narrative.
In any event while the Jury’s verdict may have been sincere…I believe more so that the verdict was more of a product of a show trial forced by political urgency and perhaps coercion to (1) maintain the current anti white narrative (2) to avoid the threat of mass national and perhaps international riots.
In the end we have the unfortunate death or murder of George Floyd regardless of his intense criminal past. Chauvin’s big mistake (regardless of whether his knee hold was absolutely neccessary ) was not to take his knee off of Floyds neck or shoulder blade area once Floyd yelled out “I can ‘t breath”. All this while being filmed by several cell phone cameras which should have given Derek a cue.
In reply to Dominic Tome:
None of the articles you cite specifically states that asylum seekers were “murdered” by the authorities.
One, ‘Home Office’s detention policies found to be in breach of human rights’ claims that ‘Mr Okwurime died from a stroke’.
While the article ‘Revealed: 16 asylum seekers died in six months’ reveals that one of those killed was indeed shot by police — after he stabbed six other asylum seekers.
The causes of the other 15 deaths are unclear. Were they all murdered by the authorities, which you seem to suggest?
So why open the way for the influx of asylum seekers only to kill them on arrival?
Did other asylum seekers kill the other 15? Certainly Badreddin Abadlla Adam, who was shot dead by police, was trying to kill other asylum seekers. So it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility.
Deadly, murderous violence is commonplace in large parts of the world. It’s not something that most liberal Westerners can grasp.
I saw my first dead bodies at 17 on my way to my first job in Jo’burg. They were victims of a tribal faction fight and such things are utterly routine there.
That was during the apartheid era and things haven’t got any better. In fact they have got considerably worse. And before you dismiss me as “white supremacist”, I come from a mixed race family. My father was a mixed race South African and much of my family are of various hues and were defined under the apartheid laws as “Coloured”, we are still family though and there is no bitterness or animosity between us.
Nonetheless, I’m not under any liberal illusions about race. I have seen too much deadly Black-on-Black violence to take comfort in that. Those who still do usually end up having their illusions shattered in a rude and bloody awakening.
The other sources you quote — the BBC and the Guardian – are bastions of white liberal naiveté and both do their utmost to instil liberal guilt among their readers.
Sounds like they’ve succeeded with you!
Dominic Tome, as you say, “the US is built on the enslavement, dehumanising, exploitation and suppression of Black people”, but please don’t forget the millions of other people of all colours and creeds who’ve suffered to make America so “great”………Irish, Scottish, Native American and on and on……………..
@ Rickson Stewart
Group 4 Security are the pitbull errand boys of the UK Border Agency. It’s amazing how bigoted Western Caucasians forget that the British Empire and the Corporate Anglo American Empire are built on corporate murder, genocide, slavery and exploitation of non-Whites. The Democrats with their Pizzagate types of satanic ritual abuse and pedophilia rings thrive on child trafficking which is largely facilitated by their lax borders with Mexico.
If the Democrats can sacrifice and sexually abuse child refugees from Mexico in the US, what makes you think that good old Mother Britain can’t do the same to African and Middle Eastern refugees? The British Empire exported their toxic murderous brand of racism and apartheid to all the nations it colonised. So what makes you think that the UK Border Agency does not regularly sacrifice asylum seekers as part of their state sanctioned satanic ritual abuse and pedophilia?
I don’t believe in the so called Right-Left paradigm as either ideology is often dismissive of the facts as means to staunchly remain faithful to their group thinking.
The facts are that the Jesuits, the Jewish Banking Cartel and organised Anglo-Saxon White Supremacists have work in tandem to subjugate Mankind using fiat currency, class wars, drugs, mainstream media, social media, all sorts of sorcery and racial divisions.
To Oscar S– White genocide is all of politics today. The amount of melanin in us suits the latitude we have been at for 300 000 years, in the cases of some of our ancestors. Blacks crowd into the small White countries so they will get looked after. You can even get drugs to supplement the small amount of sunlight you get compared to your needs, which the Tropical area provides. Your melanin is to block out the excessive sunlight. Up here, it blocks the insufficient light. You, if Black, are in the wrong place here. Floyd killed himself with drugs, Chauvin restrained him for his own safety, hence the lack of shame. A lot of the comments are stupid today.
Dominic Tome – If you’re going to attack our host, at least try to spell his name correctly – or would that be too complicated for you?
I’ve been coming to this site nearly every day for around the past 16 years, and have a great deal of respect for Mr RIXON Stewart. I’ve always found him sincere, fair and tolerant of people like you.
Some would call me a “racist” (not entirely untrue), and Rixon has never made any secret of the fact that he isn’t White. Why should he? He’s one of life’s True GENTLEMEN, and a genuine Truth Seeker.
It’s not skin colour that matters, but how a person behaves.
Finally, to answer what seems to be your main point, we’re all entitled to our individual opinions on ANY matter, and this Floyd/Chauvin case stinks to High Heaven.
I sent my comment shown above, the first in the list of comments in this article, to a prominent legal analyst/law professor at a major law school in the United States.
From my comment: Does Chauvin have an appeal due to malpractice from his attorney?
A portion of the response from the law professor after he read my email:
Thanks Brian those are very interesting points. I think that this was a horrendously difficult case for defense counsel. We all would have taken different tacks but there would be now chance in my view for an incompetent representational claim absent the failure to raise clearly exculpatory evidence.
Floyd was a thug. He threatened a pregnant Black woman with a gun to the womb He died of an overdose of Fentanyl. That is the loving father we are told everyday by MSM.
This was NOT a difficult case legally. The autopsy showed he died of an overdose,,, a good picture shows the cop did not asphyxiate the man. The procedure the cop used was commonly used throughout the world. When the DA tells a jury to not pay attention to an official autopsy document then you know its a kangaroo court.
We have now publicly hanged a person for politically correct reasons. The family received 27 million dollars of taxpayer funds for politically correctness even before the corrupted Judge and Jury found the man guilty.
The justice system is now 100% corrupted. This will continue until the breakup.
@ Barney
@ Rickson Stewart
@ lewis jones
@ White Elephant
The Truth Seeker is an excellent contemporary alternative media outlet for independent journalism and constructive discussion. However, some of its readers and commentators are overtly bigoted and they have been allowed to post their vitriol agaist Black people for far too long.
I’ve seen the likes of White Elephant and carl jones repeatly call Black people derogatory names. Guess what, all those White folks losing their hair and their sleep due to the Critical Race Theory and the “White Man Bad” so called “Woke Mentality” are beginning to experience the rude awakening.
For all its evils, Black Lives Matter and the Derek Chauvin conviction is beginning to get the plight of Black people noticed. Segregation, apartheid, corporate murder and the oppression and exploitation of non-Whites has always been the modus operandi of organised Anglo-Saxon White Supremacists. This is what necessitated the Civil Rights Movement and now the Black Lives Matter protests.
Bigoted folks like @White Elephant, @lewis jones and @Barney better get used to it because Black people won’t stop kicking off until they are regarded and treated with dignity and respect as human beings. How sweet it was when Kamaru Usman schooled your typical bigot Colby Covington across five rounds.
As long as the satanic and murderous matrix of the Jesuits, the Jewish Banking Cartel and organised Anglo-Saxon White Supremacists disregards, exploits and dehumanises Black people, expect endless and guaranteed civil protest from Black people. If in doubt, go listen to Tracy Chapman’s Talking’ About A Revolution
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr9NS-fpNsZGjmRpugvkXo0h3c0PTxbW-
@ rixon Stewert. So do I. And to be clear, the fact that you come from a mixed race family doesn’t change a thing a thing about YOUR’E article. I’m not challenging your family, I’m Challenging you. I’m not surprised by your defence though, since it’s is easy to hide behind the shield that you think that claim gives you but on close analysis your clear lack of objectivity is exposed for what it is. Why don’t you pass your article on to the family members who you refer to and ask them their thought on the merit of it and get back to us on how many of them share your view?
@ lewis Jones: Your theory on melanin is fundamentally flawed. Black people dont need to take supplements to be able to live in the west. I don’t know a single person who has ever needed to. Ever. secondly, America as a continent wasnt populated by Caucasians originally. So if you want to have and express an opinion about the presence of people were they ‘dont belong’, you have no place to speak. Non-white people end up in the west BECAUSE you went over to their countries in the first place.
As for your comment about Chauvin and the George Floyd, it’s a delusion. If Chauvin needed to keep his knee on a a mans neck to feel safe then that pussy should never have been in a police uniform. The fact is that George was fine in the shop, fine when sat in his car, fine when the interaction began but dead after that evil cop decided to act out. Riddle me this, if the victim was dead because of drugs, how could he possibly have been a threat to the officers since on your own version of reality, he must have been in poor health and already losing his life already and the officer was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully a 10 min video and a sensible jury all combine to demo that the narrative you are pushing is just delusionary.
YOUR*
Meaty comments section.
Isn’t everyone forgetting though that the “murder” of George Floyd was a made-for-purpose televisual psy-op? I thought that we all had that sussed pretty soon afterward.
Keep in mind that the two men knew each other and were formerly work colleagues. That fact wasn’t mentioned during the trial, as far as I’m aware.
Asterisk or Asterix the Gaul was a Brythonic Celt. His backside was known to be pinky-white and plumed with tufts of velvety ginger down.