Prosecutors, on day one of former police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial, accused Chauvin of killing George Floyd, a defenceless African-American while trying to detain him. The prosecutors, at the trial that took place on Monday, said, that Chauvin killed Floyd by “grinding and crushing him until the very breath, the very life, was squeezed out of him,” adding that the trial is a litmus test for US police accountability.
The prosecutor, Jerry Blackwell, told the jury that the death of Floyd was caused by Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
“What Chauvin was doing, he was doing deliberately,” Blackwell said in his opening statement. The prosecutor added that Chain used excessive force “without regard for Floyd’s life”.
The homicide is backed by reports of two autopsies. Of the two the defence seized upon one of the autopsies in which, the exact cause of death differed. Chauvin’s defence lawyer Eric Nelson focused on George Floyd’s conduct before his killing and his alleged drug use.
Chauvin has been charged with second-and third-degree murder, and manslaughter, and faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.
The video in which Chain is shown kneeling on Floyd’s neck shocked Americans and reignited the Black Lives Matter movement. In the video, Floyd can be repeatedly heard saying that he cannot breathe. Floyd was detained by Chauvin for using allegedly using a counterfeit bill at a supermarket.
“You can believe your eyes, that it was homicide, it was murder,” Blackwell told the jury, adding that Floyd wasn’t breathing for the last minute that Chauvin was kneeling on his neck.
Blackwell, calling on Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arrandondo, who fired Chauvin and said, “He will tell you it’s excessive force.”
Nelson said that behaviour was reasonable as Floyd was under the influence of drugs at the time of his arrest.
Shortly before the trial began, Floyd’s family, friends and lawyers, knelt before the Hennepin County District Court, Minneapolis in protest.
