Why can't Chauvin literally beg for mercy? Does he really think he did NOTHING wrong and was ...

[uponit7771]

... justified in stayin on a persons neck for 9 minutes?

Does the cop who recently who mistook her gun for a taser really think that's defensible?

Legally why not just say I'm wrong, I don't want to send the family through this and the state and ask for as much mercy as possible?

thx in advance

[MontanaMama]

1. I believe Chauvin thinks he's going to walk

on these charges....and, I think he’s racist enough and psychopathic enough that he believes he actually did nothing wrong. I’m not convinced he won’t be acquitted.

[Auggie]

2. Or get the charges reduced

[Ocelot II]

10. It's too late for that; he's being tried on three counts,

and any possibility of reduced charged had to have been done before the trial.

[Auggie]

12. I was assuming the presented thread scenario suggested mercy before the trial began

Yes, it is too late for reduced charges now.

[uponit7771]

4. ah, well ... yeah, there's this. People at he capital building videoing themselves committing ...

... felonies and other stupid shit.

So, who's telling these people killing Americans and getting away with it is moral and possible?

There has to be leadership changes.

[Ocelot II]

11. I very much doubt that.

His defense is basically damage control at this point; they are hoping the jury will choose the least serious of the three charges, second-degree manslaughter. Even a hung jury would only result in a retrial (you can bet the prosecution will retry him; they won't let this one go).

[CrispyQ]

3. When you're committed to the white Christian patriarchy, you can never admit you're wrong.

That's part of the whole problem. They won't admit they're wrong & often double down. They can't admit they made a mistake. Only wusses do that.

[Blue_true]

19. My sense from watching and reading, is that too many police departments hire

adrenaline freaks (love fast car chases, the thought of being in a shootout). That is a problem, IMO, that type is virtually prone to over-react or not have much empathy.

[Ms. Toad]

5. Chauvin was willing to plead guilty and spend at least 10 years in prison -

but Barr blocked it.

[sarisataka]

6. He was willing to take a plea deal for 10 years

Barr nixed that.

If he can avoid conviction on 2nd degree murder the most he will get is 25 years. He and his attorney must have believed pleading guilty to the murder charge and asking for mercy would have resulted in a sentence greater than, or at least nearly, 25 years.

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. Pleas for mercy occur in the sentencing phase, after jury has found him guilty. Nt

[lastlib]

8. I'm guessing he and his team are betting...

...that they can get a hung jury--at least on the most serious charges.

[PortTack]

13. Listening to the legal beagles here on DU a hung jury is rare.

[Ocelot II]

14. They are extremely rare.

If a jury reports that they can't reach a verdict, the judge will send them back to keep deliberating until they either decide on a verdict or say they're hopelessly deadlocked. There used to be an instruction called an Allen charge, where the judge might remind the jury that if they can't reach a verdict the case will have to be retried at great expense and inconvenience, and that they should urge the holdouts to reconsider. A lot of states, including Minnesota, have found the Allen charge to be coercive so it's no longer allowed, but even so the judge can still tell them to keep deliberating. The last hung jury I remember hearing about locally was at least ten years ago.

[MichMan]

17. I've served on one jury in my lifetime. We ended up being hung and the case was retried

Defendent as accused of driving without a license and admitted he didn't have one and didn't intend on getting one.

One women held out and said the constitution gave people a right to travel and the government can't force anyone to get a driver's license. The rest of us argued with her for an hour, but she wouldn't budge. Judge wasn't very happy

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Sounds Like The Prosecutor...

...screwed up the voir dire somehow.
I served on a felony jury March of last year and I can't imagine how someone with such a fringe notion of the law would have passed muster. Especially after the second set of question to the "first 14".
If that had happened in our case, I would have blown a gasket.

[Ocelot II]

9. Why on earth would he do that? The single issue in the trial

isn't whether he knelt on Floyd's neck (because it's been proven that he did), or even whether that constituted unreasonable force, but whether his actions caused Floyd's death. His defense is entirely based on a claim that Floyd died as a result of a combination of drugs and heart disease. The question, in other words, isn't whether Chauvin did something wrong, it's whether what he did - wrong or not - caused Floyd's death, and if so, which of the three specific homicide charges he's guilty of. And that's for the jury to decide. Any begging for mercy will occur at the sentencing phase.

[uponit7771]

15. It's farfetched to see that his actions did not cause Floyd's death ...

.... The jury would have to be brain dead to not convict this guy but we've seen it before.

That's a possibility, probability this guy gets to go to jail

If he's going to jail why not just plead Mercy and forgiveness and try to get the lowest sentence possible versus sending everybody through all this bullshit that's expensive.

FUck Chauvin I'd give him the biggest sentence in the planet if I could just for bullshitting with people, this isn't a game this was someone's life and if he's going to lose he might as well lose in the most moral way possible instead of being a bastard about it.

[Ocelot II]

16. Of course, but it's the only defense he's got and he's entitled to present it.

And just like every other defendant, no matter how odious or apparently guilty, he is entitled per the Constitution to due process, which includes a fair trial in which he's presumed innocent unless the prosecution can prove all elements of the offense(s) beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury will decide whether he's guilty of any of the three crimes he's charged with, based on the facts presented during the trial. That's our criminal justice system, which presumes that it's better to let a guilty person go free than to convict an innocent one. YMMV, but I'd rather have it that way than the opposite.

[Blue_true]

20. I am in nearly perfect condition (if one believes my medical tests).

I don’t do, not have I ever done drugs. I can pretty mush promise you that even if a 90 pound person had his or her knee on my neck for almost 9 minutes, I would be dead (or brain dead) before the person got off my neck.

[roamer65]

18. If he is acquitted, the Feds are then definitely going for their "pound of flesh".

Violation of civil rights charges. They may even do it if he’s convicted.

https://www.startribune.com/federal-prosecutors-convene-grand-jury-for-civil-rights-investigation-into-ex-minneapolis-officer-de/600026569/


Plus there will be one helluva lawsuit from the Floyd family, which they will win.

[twin_ghost]

22. He can beg for mercy at his sentncing if he is convicted.

He made the smart move not to testify in his own defense because he could misspeak and sink the case against him further. We will just have to wait to see if the jury convicts and if sentenced whether the judge will have mercy. If not then he spends 25 years to life in prison.