The Derek Chauvin Trial

No, I didn't see that, but I certainly feel the same way. I think there are a lot of honest, hardworking police out there but, as usual, the bad ones get all the news. I read that last year 14 of his own fellow officers wrote in disagreeing with how that all went down. They must have been pretty disgusted.

Thank goodness.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/19/us/derek-chauvin-trial

I don’t know about this judge.
He sure seems to make a lot of defense-friendly rulings.

Like just now - the prosecutors objected to the defense saying during their closing that “Officer Chauvin thought he was following his training.” The objection was that there was no basis upon which that inference could be made. Nothing said on the record. And it requires reading Chauvin’s mind.

The judge overruled - saying that this was a reasonable inference to make.

He ruled similarly throughout the trial.

Don't despair. It may not turn out how we'd like, but a) the Crown can appeal, and b) movement is being made.

Not despairing - just nervous-ing 😊

Fingers crossed!

This judge just named Congresswoman Maxine Waters and told the defense counsel she “may have just given you grounds for an appeal”.

What Waters said may have been inappropriate. But what this judge did was more inappropriate.

absolutely

I hope the last thing on the Jury's mind is the line, "it wasn't that George Floyd's heart was too big, but Chauvin's was too small."

I wish Water's hadn't opened her mouth. It muddies the conversation.

I guess politicians just can’t resist the urge to grandstand, once that camera hits them.

Couldn't agree more. I can't see the relevance of anything said outside the courtroom.

Judge says that Rep. Waters may cause entire Chauvin case being overturned

Well, that's not true. The judge said it might be used for an appeal.....but just because you file for appeal, there is no guarantee you will be granted a new trial or anything of value.

Exactly.

Thanks, GB. I saw that lie and started to correct him on it, but just didn’t have the energy.
Facts are wasted on some folk.

I hope that if they convict it isn't a softball conviction. He is guilty of all three counts, not just the one with the lesser sentence.

If this isn't murder well WTF are we doing. I don't think a healthy young football player could survive without oxygen for 9 and a half minutes......I wonder if the Defense Atty would volunteer for an exhibition to prove it's possible to live without oxygen for over 9 minutes. I'll sell tickets.

Actually other than a judge has no business opining from the bench, what he said was encouraging, he must think the defense case was weak and Chauvin will be found guilty in order to appeal.

Waters's comments are at best ill timed and at worse stupid. They play into the mildly conservative, white, middle class narrative about the civil rights movement in the US today. These are the people who look at yet another police killing of a black man (today the story I heard was of a 17 year old student killed in a school bathroom), yet another case of police using violence against reporters covering mostly peaceful protests (the one I heard yesterday was of the police throwing a reporter of Asian decent to the ground after she said she was a reporter and presented her credentials and screaming at her "do you speak English?" before arresting her) and instead of saying "THIS ABUSE OF CITIZENS BY POLICE HAS TO STOP!" instead say "we have some problems in our policing that need to be addressed, but THESE RAGINGLY VIOLENT PROTESTS HAVE TO STOP!"

Two pundits on HLN this morning ventured a prediction on the length of deliberations.
One said they will come back today.
The other said they will come back today - and convict with a clean sweep of all three charges.

Too bold for me, but it was nice to hear.