Twelve Minnesotans are now deciding what happens to Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer charged with the death of George Floyd.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Twelve Minnesotans are now deciding what happens to the ex-police officer charged with the death of George Floyd. The jurors heard closing arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin Monday. “When George Floyd gave his final words to the defendant, ‘Please, I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,’ crying out for help to the man in uniform, the defendant stayed right on top of him, ignored it,” prosecutor Steve Schleicher said. “Continued doing what he was doing, facing the crowd, grinding his knee.” “No crime is committed if a police officer’s actions were justified by the police officer’s use of reasonable force in the line of duty in effecting a lawful arrest or preventing an escape from custody,” defense attorney Eric Nelson said. “The kind and degree of force a police officer may lawfully use in executing his duties is limited by what a reasonable officer in the same situation would believe to be necessary.” The two sides split most significantly on the cause of death. The prosecution argued that all the law requires is that the prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt is that Chauvin’s knee restraint was a “substantial cause” of Floyd’s death. “It’s what you felt in your gut. It’s what you now know in your heart,” Schleicher said.
