Jury Hears Closing Arguments in Derek Chauvin Trial as City, Nation Brace for Verdict
Derek Chauvin #DerekChauvin
Closing arguments in the trial of ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin began Monday as the city, the state of Minnesota and the nation wait on edge for a verdict in the high-profile case that has for many become a symbolic test of the American justice system’s ability to hold police accountable.
Chauvin is facing charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter for the death of George Floyd, a Black man, last May. Floyd’s death and a bystander video that captured Chauvin kneeling on his neck for more than 9 minutes sparked monthslong racial justice protests and a national reckoning over race and policing.
“Believe your eyes. What you saw happened, happened. It happened. The defendant pressed down on George Floyd so his lungs did not have the room to breathe,” prosecutor Steve Schleicher told jurors Monday morning, echoing the state’s opening statement.
Schleicher said Chauvin chose “pride over policing” during the encounter and emphasized – as the state did at the start of the trial – that the case was not a referendum on all police.
“What the defendant did was not policing. What the defendant did was an assault,” he said.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defense lawyer, started his closing arguments by attempting to divert attention away from the graphic video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck and argued again that Chauvin’s use of force was reasonable and by the book. He also introduced the idea that Floyd could have been faking a medical emergency to avoid arrest.
The closing arguments cap nearly three weeks of testimony from medical experts, police and bystanders, and the careful presentation of evidence that included the repeated playing of the graphic video that captured Floyd’s last minutes.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys wove competing narratives about Chauvin’s actions and Floyd’s cause of death – the two issues at the heart of the trial.
The prosecution argued that Chauvin violated department use-of-force police when he knelt on Floyd’s neck and that the action deprived Floyd of oxygen for an extended period of time, leading directly to his death.
Key witnesses included the acting police chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, who offered a rare condemnation of the ex-officer and asserted that Chauvin violated department policies, and a world-renowned pulmonologist who led jurors through a second-by-second dissection of the video of Floyd’s death and testified that Floyd died from a lack of oxygen – an assertion echoed by a surgeon for the Louisville Metro Police Department.
The defense’s case lasted just two days and attempted to rebuff that narrative and cast doubt on Floyd’s cause of death, arguing that drug use and an underlying heart condition were ultimately responsible. One witness argued that Chauvin acted appropriately. Another said Floyd likely died of an arrhythmia brought on by his heart condition, drugs in his system and, potentially, carbon monoxide from the police car.
Chauvin’s defense lawyer, Eric Nelson, also repeatedly emphasized Floyd’s large stature and “superhuman strength” in what some have called out as a racist stereotype of Black men.
Chauvin ultimately refused to testify on his own behalf. He spoke for the first and only time during the trial Thursday to assure the judge that the decision not to take the stand was his alone.
The trial has garnered more public interest than perhaps any in recent memory, boosted by cameras that were let into the courtroom to capture the proceedings, which were broadcast and live-streamed by several major media outlets.
Jury deliberation could take hours, days or weeks. Authorities were preparing for potential fallout from an eventual verdict even before the trial began, but tensions have ratcheted up even further in just the last week and a half in both Minnesota and the nation at large over two more high-profile police killings.
On April 11 – a week into arguments in the Chauvin trial – 20-year-old Daunte Wright was fatally shot by police just 10 miles from where Chauvin’s trial was taking place. Wright, a Black man who was unarmed, was killed by Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, Officer Kim Potter during a traffic stop in what police say was an accidental shooting that happened when Potter drew her handgun instead of her taser.
Wright’s death sparked nights of protests in the Minneapolis suburb. Potter and the police chief turned in their badges in the wake of the incident, and Potter on Wednesday was charged with second-degree murder – one of the same charges Chauvin is facing.
Then, as the defense rested in the Chauvin trial on Thursday, officials in Chicago released body camera footage of the killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by police on March 19. The footage shows an officer chasing Toledo, who then stops in an alley and turns with his hands up. The officer shoots a split second later, striking the seventh-grader, who crumples to the ground. Toledo’s hands appear to be empty as he raises them before he is shot. Other video released by officials appears to show Toledo ditching a gun behind him before he turns and raises his arms.
The video and stills from the footage were widely shared after they were released, and protesters gathered in Chicago and beyond over the weekend.
The verdict in the Chauvin trial will come amid public outrage over those two killings, and residents and officials in Minneapolis are bracing for the conclusion of the trial. An acquittal is likely to bring pain, anger and protests.
While residents prepare emotionally for a verdict, officials are taking steps in case of disruptive demonstrations. Minneapolis Public Schools will switch to remote learning later this week in anticipation of potential protests. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has said that the city has been coordinating with the National Guard and police from other jurisdictions. Unrest last year in the wake of Floyd’s death led to $350 million in damages, the city said.
Judge Peter Cahill, who is overseeing the trial, gave the jury lengthy instructions Monday before closing arguments began explaining the specific laws at issue in the case.
The jury must consider each of the charges Chauvin is facing separately. They will be sequestered in a hotel until they reach a decision on each charge or become deadlocked and can’t.
For the most serious charge – second-degree murder – the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Chauvin assualted Floyd or intentionally attempted to commit bodily harm. But instructions given to the jury emphasize that Chauvin does not have had the intent to kill Floyd to be convicted of second-degree murder.
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