The Trial of George Floyd

The progress from Western colonial global expansion, and the construction of American wealth and industry on the backs of enslaved Blacks and Native peoples, followed by the abrupt "emancipation" of the slaves and their exodus from the South to the Northern cities, has led us to our current divided society. Divided by economic inequities and unequal access to social resources, the nation lives in a media dream of social harmony, or did until YouTube set its bed on fire. Now, it is common knowledge that our current system of brutal racist policing and punitive over-incarceration serves the dual purpose of maintaining racial prejudice and the inequities it justifies. Brief yourself on this late-breaking development in American history here.

Re: The Trial of George Floyd

Postby admin » Wed Apr 14, 2021 4:03 am

Did Chauvin's Defense Witnesses Score ANY Points or Did They Actually Hurt Chauvin's Case?
by Glenn Kirschner
Apr 13, 2021



Here's a recap of the witnesses who testified Tuesday in the Chauvin trial for the homicide of George Floyd. A review of the witnesses suggest that the defense may be doing itself more harm than good.
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Re: The Trial of George Floyd

Postby admin » Fri Apr 16, 2021 2:03 am

Witness for Derek Chauvin’s Defense Claims George Floyd Died of Heart Disease, Drugs and Car Fumes
by Amy Goodman
Democracy Now
APR 15, 2021

A few miles south of Brooklyn Center, the murder trial of Derek Chauvin continues today with speculation growing over whether the former Minneapolis police officer will take the stand in his own defense. On Wednesday, a forensic pathologist called by Chauvin’s lawyers testified that George Floyd died of heart trouble — rather than a lack of oxygen. Dr. David Fowler, the former chief medical examiner for the state of Maryland, dismissed an official autopsy report that found Floyd died of cardiopulmonary arrest due to restraint and neck compression.

Video of Floyd’s death shows Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes — including for several minutes after Floyd stopped responding. But Dr. Fowler claimed Floyd died from a combination of heart disease, drug use and tailpipe emissions from a police cruiser.

Dr. David Fowler: “There is exposure to a vehicle exhaust, so potentially carbon monoxide poisoning.”

Under cross-examination, Dr. Fowler admitted there was no evidence of carbon monoxide in George Floyd’s blood. He also conceded that George Floyd should have been given medical attention — and might have survived if officers had rendered aid.

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Expert Witness for Derek Chauvin’s Defense Sued over Black Teen’s Death at Hands of Maryland Police
by Amy Goodman
Democracy Now
APR 15, 2021

Dr. David Fowler is being sued by the family of 19-year-old Anton Black, an African American teenager from Maryland who died in 2018 after he was electrocuted with a Taser, pinned in a prone position and crushed under the weight of three white police officers and a white civilian as he struggled to breathe and lost consciousness. Black died on the front porch of his mother’s home as she was forced to stand by, watching. After an autopsy, Dr. Fowler ruled Black’s death an accident, and no one was charged with a crime. The wrongful death lawsuit says Dr. Fowler delayed release of an autopsy report for months and covered up police responsibility for Black’s death.

Black’s sister, LaToya Holley, said this week, “It’s surreal that you have two men on the opposite sides of the country that experienced almost the same treatment by two different police officers. The medical examiner, in my opinion, was egregious in the way he finalized Anton’s autopsy results. Now, he’s being called to be an expert witness for another police officer.”
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Re: The Trial of George Floyd

Postby admin » Sat Apr 17, 2021 8:24 am

Why Chauvin's Expert Witness, Medical Examiner David Fowler, Actually LOST Points for the Defense
by Glenn Kirschner
Apr 14, 2021

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Derek Chauvin presented the testimony of medical examiner/forensic pathologist Dr. David Fowler. He offered different (and often unsupportable) opinions than all other experts on George Floyd's cause and manner of death. Here's a takedown of his testimony and why he likely lost more points than he won for the defense.
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Re: The Trial of George Floyd

Postby admin » Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:33 am

A Recap of the Closing Arguments in the Derek Chauvin Case. It's All Over but the . . . Justice
by Glenn Kirschner
April 19, 2021



The closing arguments had some interesting twists and turns. Here's a review of the performance and some of the best lines of prosecutors Steve Schleicher and Jerry Blackwell, and some of the problematic arguments of defense attorney Eric Nelson. And now we wait for justice for George Floyd. Because Justice Matters.
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Re: The Trial of George Floyd

Postby admin » Fri Apr 23, 2021 2:30 am

Guilty on All Counts: Derek Chauvin Verdict Triggers Relief & Determination to Keep Fighting
by Amy Goodman
Democracy Now
APRIL 21, 2021
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/4/21/ ... _reactions

A jury in Minneapolis has convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin on three counts for murdering George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds last year. The jury reached its decision after 10 hours of deliberation. Derek Chauvin will be sentenced in two months. He faces up to 40 years in prison for the most serious charge, second-degree murder. He is the first white police officer in Minnesota to ever be convicted of killing a Black man. We feature reactions from people gathered outside the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, comments from George Floyd’s brother and nephew, as well as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: A jury in Minneapolis has convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin on all three counts for murdering George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds last May. Chauvin is the first white police officer in Minnesota to ever be convicted of killing a Black person. The jury reached its decision after 10 hours of deliberation. Just after 5 p.m. Eastern time, Judge Peter Cahill read the jury’s decision.

JUDGE PETER CAHILL: “We, the jury in the above-entitled matter, as to count one, unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony, find the defendant guilty. … We, the jury in the above-entitled matter, as to count two, third-degree murder perpetrating an eminently dangerous act, find the defendant guilty. … We, the jury in the above-entitled matter, as to count three, second-degree manslaughter, culpable negligence creating an unreasonable risk, find the defendant guilty.”

AMY GOODMAN: Moments later, Derek Chauvin was handcuffed and taken into custody. He’ll be sentenced in two months. He faces up to 40 years in prison for the most serious charge, second-degree murder.

Outside the Minneapolis Courthouse, crowds erupted in cheers when the verdicts were announced.

CROWD: Guilty! Guilty!

AMY GOODMAN: Residents of Minneapolis described feeling relieved by the jury’s decision to convict Derek Chauvin.

SEMHAR SOLOMON: With the verdict today, I feel like a weight is lifted off my shoulders. But I know that the work’s not done. I know that there’s a lot of work to do, but I think, for today, like, I — like, Black people have their pride. Black people have their liberation. And I think today is just a day to celebrate. But tomorrow is another day to work.

AMY GOODMAN: George Floyd’s younger brother Philonise addressed reporters. He invoked the name of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Chicago boy who was lynched in 1955 in Mississippi.

PHILONISE FLOYD: He was the first George Floyd. But today, you have the cameras all around the world to see and show what happened to my brother. It was a motion picture, the world seeing his life being extinguished. And I could do nothing but watch. … We have to protest, because it seems like this is a never-ending cycle. Reverend Al always told me we’ve got to keep fighting. I’m going to put up a fight every day, because I’m not just fighting for George anymore, I’m fighting for everybody around this world. I get calls. I get DMs, people from Brazil, from Ghana, from Germany, everybody, London, Italy. They’re all saying the same thing: We won’t be able to breathe until you are able to breathe. Today, we are able to breathe again.

AMY GOODMAN: George Floyd’s nephew Brandon Williams also spoke and called for reforms to policing in the United States.

BRANDON WILLIAMS: So, today is a pivotal moment for America. It’s something this country has needed for a long time now. And hopefully today is the start of that. When I say a pivotal moment, we need change in this broken system. It was built to oppress us. … We need police reform bad. These guys are able to wear a badge and go out in the field, which means that they’re qualified and trained to do their job at a high level. But when you shoot and kill a man that’s running away from you, that doesn’t pose a threat, either you’re not qualified and undertrained or it’s a choice and you want to kill Black men and women. It’s either one or the other. And I think today Keith Ellison and his team proved that just because you are the law, you’re not above the law. We need each and every officer to be held accountable. And until then, it’s still scary to be a Black man or woman in America encountering police.

AMY GOODMAN: The Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton stood behind the family members as they spoke. Reverend Al Sharpton of the National Action Network spoke alongside the Floyd family.

REV. AL SHARPTON: We don’t find pleasure in this. We don’t celebrate a man going to jail. We would have rather George be alive. But we celebrate that we — because young people, white and Black, some castigated, many that are here tonight, marched and kept marching and kept going, many of them looked down on but they kept marching and wouldn’t let this die. And this is an assurance to them that if we don’t give up, that we can win some rounds. But the war and the fight is not over. Just two days from now, we’re going to have to deal with the funeral of Daunte Wright, in the same county, the same area. We still have cases to fight. But this gives us the energy to fight on. And we are determined that we’re going to fight until we make federal law. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act must be law.

AMY GOODMAN: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was in charge of the prosecution. He also referenced the recent police killing of Daunte Wright in nearby Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

ATTORNEY GENERAL KEITH ELLISON: We have seen Rodney King, Abner Louima, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Laquan McDonald, Stephon Clark, Atatiana Jefferson, Anton Black, Breonna Taylor, and now Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo. This has to end. We need true justice. That’s not one case. That is a social transformation that says that nobody is beneath the law and no one is above it. This verdict reminds us that we must make enduring, systemic, societal change.

AMY GOODMAN: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is the first African American elected to statewide office in Minnesota and the first Muslim elected to statewide office anywhere in the United States. President Biden addressed the nation Tuesday and condemned systemic racism.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: It was a murder in the full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism the vice president just referred to, the systemic racism that’s a stain on our nation’s soul, the knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans, profound fear and trauma, the pain, the exhaustion, that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day. The murder of George Floyd launched a summer a protest we hadn’t seen since the civil rights era in the ’60s, protests that unified people of every race and generation in peace and with purpose to say, “Enough. Enough. Enough of this senseless killings.”

AMY GOODMAN: Kamala Harris, the nation’s first African American vice president, spoke just before President Biden.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Today we feel a sigh of relief. Still, it cannot take away the pain. A measure of justice isn’t the same as equal justice. This verdict brings us a step closer. And the fact is, we still have work to do. We still must reform the system.

AMY GOODMAN: When we come back, we’ll spend the rest of the hour looking at the Chauvin verdict, and we’ll speak with Kandace Montgomery of Black Visions Collective in Minnesota and Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Stay with us.
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Re: The Trial of George Floyd

Postby admin » Fri Apr 23, 2021 3:17 am

Derek Chauvin Guilty of Murder, Justice for George Floyd. Time to Get Justice Trending in America
by Glenn Kirschner
Apr 20, 2021



A jury convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd. We may now have an opportunity together justice trending in America.

Also, here is why Rep. Maxine Waters's comments will not provide Derek Chauvin a viable issue on appeal.
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