Derek Chauvin, George Floyd's Killer, Wants to Make His Trial About Anyone and Anything Else

[babylonsister]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/derek-chauvin-george-floyds-killer-wants-to-make-his-trial-about-anyone-and-anything-else?ref=home

Derek Chauvin, George Floyd’s Killer, Wants to Make His Trial About Anyone and Anything Else
WHO’S TRYING WHO?
It’s not uncommon for defense attorneys to suggest a victim brought his death upon himself. This one is also trying to suggest the witnesses to Floyd’s killing are to blame for it.
Ernest Owens
Published Apr. 05, 2021 4:09AM ET


After a week of emotional testimonies and heated cross-examinations, Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd begs the question: Who’s actually being tried right now?

The legal defense team representing Chauvin, the ex-cop who has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, is not only placing blame on the slain 46-year-old Black man, but the bystanders who were present. Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, argues that Floyd’s death was caused by his opioid drug use, other underlying health conditions, and the adrenaline flowing through his body.

But in a bizarre twist, Nelson has also pointed the finger at the crowd of innocent Minnesota bystanders who witnessed Floyd’s death on May 25, suggesting that they had made the responding officers fear for their safety and thus distracted them from focusing on the incident at hand.

snip//

It’s a shame to see these bystanders re-traumatized and badgered for a crime they didn’t commit. During similar trials involving the killing of unarmed Black civilians, the slain is typically being tried subliminally before the jury as an aggressor in an attempt by the defense to justify their death. We saw this happen during the George Zimmerman trial, as his attorneys suggested that he was acting in self-defense against 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed when Zimmerman shot him in cold blood. In 2013, a six-person jury rendered a not guilty verdict on all counts for Zimmerman.

But I can’t recall a recent case where bystanders were interrogated in such a way to frame them as being more liable for a killing than the person charged with it. Nelson’s aggressive questioning of these witnesses, some of which were underage at the time of the crime, came across as a desperate deflection of the harm done by his client. Regardless of how upset or frustrated these witnesses were, they never physically interfered with Chauvin’s decision to press his knee on an armed Black man in public for over nine minutes. Nor did any of them attack or actively impede the three other officers on the scene—Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter—from doing their jobs.

There’s a reason those four men are being tried in a court of law. Remember as the second week of this trial begins that it is not, as some headlines have had it, the “George Floyd Trial.” Derek Chauvin is on trial here and, absent any serious defense, his lawyer is trying to make this trial about anyone and anything else.

[uponit7771]

1. This isn't going to be popular but his lawyers are doing their best with what they got, Chauvin

... literally snatched his camera off and through it under a car so he can murder someone and IINM that's on camera too.

It's a world wide stage, Chauvin should be able to proffer he was cocoo for coco puffs ... any other situation that guy would be frying by now.

We're showing mercy as a nation, I hope that's what comes out of this trial.

[babylonsister]

2. I don't think

pointing fingers at bystanders indicates lawyers doing their best to defend their client. What he did was indefensible; why involve innocents?

[uponit7771]

3. True, but what else does Chauvin have but some complete slap in the face insult to peoples

... intelligence?

I don't know what he could say other than begging the court not to fry him, which ... hell ... to your point might be better than sending people through the crap they're going through now.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. "Defense" in a case like this doesn't mean defending the client. It means creating doubts in

the mind of exactly one juror, which is why the defense throws anything it can on the table in a case like this.

[Irish_Dem]

9. Exactly. This is their job. All they have to do is create doubt in one juror.

So they will blame everyone else for Chauvin's crime.

[babylonsister]

10. Seems like this whole thing is an exercise in

futility to me given we all saw this man murdered by this cop, no doubt about that.

[PatSeg]

21. Yes, it would seem so

but the law requires that the accused is provided with legal representation and those lawyers have to do whatever they can legally to defend him. From everything we know, that is obviously not an easy task. Being that overwhelming evidence, i.e. videos and multiple witnesses, paint him as undeniably guilty, the defense team is going after the witnesses. That said, they must know they are losing and that their client is obviously guilty.

It must really suck to be them. Not only is it a high profile case, it is being televised nationally. There might be an upside to all the media attention, but I cannot imagine what it is.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

23. The defense supported the idea of having cameras in the courtroom (which is not otherwise allowed

in Minnesota). The judge wanted the trial to be entirely transparent, and it's generally understood that the defense wants its client to be seen as a human being, sitting quietly at a desk. It doesn't help when it comes to the jury, necessarily, but it certainly does in the court of public opinion -- and whether there are any appeals down the line.

[PatSeg]

24. I was surprised to see the trial was being televised

but figured perhaps that was because COVID restrictions meant there could be fewer observers and press in the courtroom. I did not realize the defense wanted cameras in the courtroom. Did they honestly think it would make that man a more sympathetic defendant? I honestly can't see how anyone can portray Chauvin as sympathetic, especially after watching the video.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

25. Not more sympathetic -- human. And I think they're pretty aware of how people see

Chauvin. But again, a defense team is going to do everything they can to do one thing -- introduce doubt, which can then grow into a reasonable doubt.

[PatSeg]

26. Yes, they have to use whatever resources they can

and obviously in Chauvin's case, that is not an easy task. Even portraying him as "human" seems like a heavy lift.

[llashram]

13. true this

defence trying to see what sticks. They do gauge reactions in jurors.

[cab67]

18. There's a reason the lawyer is taking this approach.

It sometimes happens to be effective. The rather large number of rapists who've walked because "she was asking for it" is evidence for this.

[uponit7771]

22. wow !! didn't even know that could be suggested in a rape case. A lot of CJ reform to be done...

... and we're wasting time with assholes who don't like democracy

[dweller]

5. Floyd was armed ?

“ Chauvin’s decision to press his knee on an armed Black man in public for over nine minutes”

✌🏻

[Harker]

7. He had two arms. n/t

[mucifer]

6. Problem is the videos show about 10 people defenselessly trying to stop the murder with

no weapons other than the video on their phones.

[multigraincracker]

8. Basic Cop School 101, always

blame the victim.

[ansible]

11. FTP nt

[llashram]

12. this

[KS Toronado]

14. Will Chauvin allow his air to be cut off for 9 minutes to prove one can live through it?

The DA should ask him.

[gab13by13]

15. Why is everyone so surprised?

We all watched a cop jump out of his car and shoot Tamir Rice a 12 year old boy playing in the park within a couple of seconds. Nothing happened to that cop, he was totally exonerated. The city ends up paying millions of dollars which is a green light for cops to keep killing black people, even 12 year old kids.

[barbtries]

16. it' gotten to where

i can't watch the defense questioning past a certain point. it's so much bullshit. Chauvin should have pled guilty as far as i'm concerned. but i see him in the court and he seems truly heartless and untroubled. racist pos

[gab13by13]

17. Chauvin has a record,

in his file, of using excessive force. So why is his record off limits to the jury? I guaran-fuckn-tee it if his record was clean it would be allowed to be introduced as evidence for the jury.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. Judges generally don't allow past incidents to be brought up. Cahill isn't allowing Floyd's record

to be brought up, either. He wants the jury focused on these specific charges in this specific killing.

[Heartstrings]

20. I have yet to find out what exactly George was going to be charged with.

Initially it was a “counterfeit” $20.00 bill, then I heard a cop on one of the body cams in court state “forgery”. Two very different crimes.