MINNEAPOLIS (CN) — The murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd began in earnest Monday morning.
Attorneys for Chauvin and the prosecution laid out frameworks for their cases in opening statements and presented some key evidence, including the viral video of Floyd’s arrest and death that sparked protests and riots around the world in the summer of 2020.
Chauvin faces second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges for Floyd’s death. He is on trial alone after his case was separated from those of the three other officers involved in the May 25 arrest. Those officers – Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng – face aiding-and-abetting charges and are set to go to trial in August.
Protesters gathered around the heavily fortified Hennepin County Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis in advance of the trial, as did the Floyd family, attorney Ben Crump and the Reverend Al Sharpton.
“This murder case is not hard when you watch the torture video of George Floyd. And we have to call it what it is: it was torture,” Crump told reporters ahead of opening statements.
The Floyd family reached a $27 million settlement with the city of Minneapolis early in March, a development that threw a wrench into jury selection. Cahill dismissed two already-seated jurors on March 17 after they said news of the settlement would make it difficult to judge the case impartially.
“Black people in America should not only have the right to get partial justice. We have every right to get whole justice-- civil justice and criminal justice,” Crump said. “We’re not asking for anything extraordinary-- we’re asking for equal justice under the law.”
The family led a crowd in 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silent kneeling as a comment on the length of time Chauvin spent kneeling on Floyd’s neck before his death. That figure was widely cited in the early months after Floyd’s death based on a bystander’s video which went viral. Documents filed by prosecutors have cited other footage to allege that Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for at least 9 minutes and possibly as long as 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
Attorney Jerry Blackwell of Blackwell Burke, aiding the prosecution, cited 9 minutes and 29 seconds shortly afterward in opening statements.
“You will be able to hear Mr. Floyd saying ‘please, I can’t breathe. Please, man. Please,’ in these 9 minutes and 29 seconds,” he said.
He pointed out that Floyd’s cries stopped after 4 minutes and 45 seconds, and that in the following 53 seconds Floyd was involuntarily convulsing from lack of oxygen. He argued Chauvin departed dramatically from Minneapolis Police Department policy, which requires that prone-positioned subjects be placed in a recovery position as soon as possible.
Blackwell also sought to distance the case from police-abolitionist rhetoric that gained prominence after Floyd’s death.
“There are any number of things that this case is not about…. One of the things this case is not about is all police or all policing,” he said. “This case is about Mr. Derek Chauvin.”
The attorney acknowledged that officers often have to make quick decisions in dangerous situations, but said Chauvin’s hold on Floyd was not one of those instances.
“This case is not about split-second decision-making. In 9 minutes and 29 seconds, there are 479 seconds, and not a split second among them,” Blackwell said.
Eric Nelson of Halberg Criminal Defense is defending Chauvin, with funding from the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. His opening statement focused on the reasonable-doubt standard, and in it he argued that Floyd died of a cardiac arrhythmia brought on by drug use, despite Chauvin and his colleagues’ efforts to provide care.
