MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Prosecutors’ case against former officer Derek Chauvin approached a closing Monday with George Floyd’s tender recollections younger brother, along with another look at the poignant video and testimony of an expert on the use of force who said that no ‘reasonable’ officer would have done what Chauvin did.
Seth Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, condemned Chauvin’s actions against what a reasonable police officer would have done in the same situation, repeatedly finding that Chauvin failed the test.
“No reasonable officer would have believed that was an appropriate, acceptable or reasonable use of force,” said Stoughton of the way Floyd was held face down with one knee to his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.
He also said the failure to roll over Floyd and provide assistance “as his increasing medical need became apparent” was unreasonable.
He said it was also unreasonable to think that Floyd could harm officers or escape after being handcuffed to the ground. And in yet another blow to Chauvin’s defense, Stoughton said a reasonable officer would not have seen the screaming bystanders as a threat.
The question of what is reasonable carries a lot of weight: Police officers are allowed to use a certain leeway to use lethal force when someone endangers the officer or other people. But legal experts say a major question for the jury will be whether Chauvin’s actions were reasonable in those particular circumstances.
During a cross-examination, Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson questioned Stoughton’s view that it was unreasonable and outrageous to put Floyd on his stomach in the first place.
“Reasonable minds can disagree, agree?” Nelson asked.
“At this particular point, no,” said the witness.
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case on Tuesday, after which the defense will present its side. During 11 days of testimony, prosecuting experts, including the Minneapolis police chief and medical professionals, said the now-fired white officer violated his training and used excessive force and that Floyd died from a lack of oxygen due to the way his breathing was constricted. .
Earlier in the day Monday, Philonise Floyd, 39, took the witness stand and fondly recalled how his older brother made the best banana mayonnaise sandwiches, how George urged him to catch a soccer ball, and the way George marked his height on the wall as a boy because he wanted to grow up.
He cried when he saw a photo of his late mother and a young George and said, “I miss them both.”
His testimony at Chauvin’s murder trial was part of an attempt by prosecutors to humanize George Floyd in front of the jury and make the 46-year-old black man more than just a crime statistic. Minnesota is a rarity in allowing “spark of life” testimony during the pilot phase.
Philonise Floyd described growing up in a poor neighborhood of Houston with George and their other siblings.
He said Floyd played soccer and deliberately threw the ball at different angles so Philonise would have to practice diving for it. ‘I always thought my brother couldn’t throw. But he never intended to throw the ball at me, ”he said, smiling.
Earlier Monday, Judge Peter Cahill rejected a defense request to immediately sequester the jury the morning after the murder of a black man. during a traffic stop caused unrest in a suburb just outside Minneapolis.
Chauvin’s lawyer had argued that the jurors could be influenced by the prospect of what could happen as a result of their verdict.
But the judge said he won’t separate the jury until next Monday, when he expects the closing arguments to begin. He also turned down a defense request to question jurors about what they might have seen about Sunday’s shooting by police at 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center.
In the aftermath of the shooting, protesters broke into about 20 businesses, jumped on police cars, and threw rocks and other items at officers in Brooklyn Center, about 10 miles from the heavily fortified Minneapolis courthouse.
The Brooklyn Center police chief later called that the shooting was an accident and said the officer who shot was apparently planning to draw a Taser and not a gun.
Stoughton, the violence expert, said the officers who oppressed Floyd should have known he wasn’t trying to attack them when he struggled and frantically said he was claustrophobic when they tried to put him in a patrol car.
“I don’t see him as a threat to anything,” said Stoughton, adding that no reasonable officer would conclude otherwise.
Stoughton also pointed to instances where Chauvin should have been aware of Floyd’s growing need: After an officer suggested rolling Floyd onto his side, Chauvin said no. The 19-year-old police veteran ignored bystanders who yelled that Floyd was unresponsive. And when another officer said that Floyd had no pulse, Stoughton said, Chauvin replied “Huh.”
Mike Brandt, a local attorney who is closely watching the case, said Philonise Floyd’s testimony was irrelevant to whether Chauvin caused Floyd’s death, “but it certainly plays on the sympathy of the jury.” He said Stoughton’s testimony gave prosecutors an opportunity to leave the jury “with one more image from the video” of Floyd pleading for his life.
“It was the state’s farewell,” Brandt said.
Earlier Monday, Dr. Jonathan Rich, a cardiology expert at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, echoed previous witnesses by saying that Floyd died of low oxygen levels from the way he was detained by police.
He rejected defensive theories that Floyd died of a drug overdose or heart disease. Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, high blood pressure, and narrowing of the heart’s arteries, according to previous testimonials.
“It was really the forward restraint and positional limitations that led to his choking,” Rich said.
In fact, the expert said, “Any indicator is that Mr. Floyd actually had an exceptionally strong heart.”
During a cross-examination, Nelson tried to blame Floyd, asking if Floyd would have survived if he had “ just gotten into the back seat of the patrol car. ”
But Rich rejected that reasoning: ‘If he hadn’t been kept the way he was, I think he would have survived that day. I think he would have gone home or wherever he went. ”
Chauvin’s attorney he is expected to call his own medical experts to claim it was not the officers knee who killed Floyd. The defense has not said whether Chauvin will testify
Find AP’s full coverage of George Floyd’s death at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.