The Derek Chauvin Trial

He offered to plead guilty to third degree murder and be sentenced to ten years in prison. The state refused.

Not doubting you, but could you provide a link?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/us/george-floyd-death.html

I guess it was third degree murder and "more than" ten years. But I don't know how much more.

It was the Trump Administration that rejected the deal too I guess.

Yeah, that’s interesting. AG Barr himself turned down the 3rd degree murder plea.

And Chauvin was going to jump at the chance for “more than ten years” in a federal prison.

Real interesting.

I’m wondering if they will be allowed to bring in the fact that Chauvin had 22 internal investigations as a result of complaints against him. Seems relevant as to establishing what kind of behavior he’s prone to.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/02/05/that-could-have-been-me-the-people-derek-chauvin-choked-before-george-floyd

Derek Chauvin used force against suspects before George Floyd. The jury won't hear about 6 of those incidents.

I wonder if the defense is making headway in discrediting the use of force expert testifying now? I don't think so, but I am biased and to me the guy is just nauseating anyway. (the defense attorney)

I was watching the trial on MSNBC, but yesterday they cut away and I saw that HLN is showing it continuously.

Yes I’ve been watching on HLN pretty frequently. Except when they seem to have too many people doing too much analysis,

Even for a defense whose entire strategy is to make George Floyd responsible for his own death, they reached a new low yesterday.

They played a snippet of audio of Mr Floyd’s death groans and tried to get the witness to verify that Floyd said something that proves he had overdosed.

Despicable - and it backfired anyway, because when the prosecutor immediately on redirect replayed the snippet in longer context, the witness then stated it sounded like Floyd was saying something completely different and unhelpful to the defense.

No matter what lowdown tactics they try, they can never explain away the fact that Chauvin kept resting his weight for long minutes on the neck of a man who not only was not resisting, but was not showing any signs of life.

someone testified that even if the knee wasn't on Floyd's neck for the entire nine minutes -- sometimes Chauvin shifted it to the shoulder,
the constant overall pressure on the body from the knee was a factor in cause of death...

Yes. Also the prone position on the concrete, with arms drawn behind and handcuffed, in itself made it hard to draw a full breath. The weight of Chauvin and other officers on his back and neck just made it worse.

In that position a person can expel air, but cannot take a breath.
That’s why a person can beg for mercy but still be asphyxiating.
And it answers the macabre statements made on the scenes of a couple of chokehold deaths(Eric Gardner) - “He’s talking, so he must be able to breathe” - as they slowly murder another black man.

I don't understand why the prosecution spent so much time yesterday on the drugs part of the case. Why do the defense work for them?

It also discounts the effects of exhaustion. I can hold a 50lb weight in front of me for a while, but eventually my muscles give out. Likewise your throat muscle can hold for a while but not for nine minutes.

I think they’re trying to preempt the defense from using some of that stuff in their favor. The prosecution knows a lot of the defense’s case is based on proving Floyd died of an overdose, so they’re trying to neutralize it by getting it in front of the jury first.

Imo: the team leader screwed up by not intially collecting it for analysis. I think you can bet your bottom dollar she will never make the same mistake again. The prosecution HAD to get in front of it.

This pulmonologist is excellent. I think though, that the defense successfully kept out a picture that would explain even more clearly how the life was squeezed out of Mr Floyd. They objected, then we didn’t see the picture.

The Derek Chauvin trial is ‘opening old wounds’ for police violence victims

I'm on pins and needles wondering how the defense is going to try and go after the lung specialist. He was just so effective and gentle and informative.

Never laid a glove on him.

I've never been good at science and health so I confess, I am not getting this section of the trial at all. Think I'll take a nice long break from it and catch up later with analysis, but I am glad I caught the lung specialist, him I understood.