Demonstrators are seen outside the Hennepin County courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the United States, April 19, 2021. Jurors in the trial of Derek Chauvin, who was charged with killing Minnesota black man George Floyd last May, started deliberating the verdict after hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and the defense starting Monday. (Photo by Ben Brewer/Xinhua)
WASHINGTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Jurors in the trial of Derek Chauvin, who was charged with killing Minnesota black man George Floyd last May, started deliberating the verdict after hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and the defense starting Monday.
In their closing arguments, both the prosecution and the defense focused on the concept of reasonable doubt, with the prosecution arguing that there was none and that jurors can believe what the video evidence had shown, while the defense claiming that the restraint Chauvin put on Floyd was not what caused the latter's death and imploring the jurors to consider other factors that could put Chauvin's role in Floyd's death in doubt.
"This case is exactly what you thought when you saw it first, when you saw that video. You can believe your eyes," prosecutor Steve Schleicher said, referring to the video that showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. "It's what you felt in your gut. What you now know in your heart. This wasn't policing. It was murder."
Schleicher tried to convince the jurors that Chauvin didn't follow the trainings he received as a police officer and instead acted with cruelty and indifference while Floyd was begging for his life.
"The defendant knew how to do it, he had the training. He knew better. He just didn't do better," Schleicher said. "George Floyd did not have to die that day, should not have died that day. But for the fact that the defendant decided not to get up and not to let up, George Floyd died."
Defense attorney Eric Nelson said that Floyd's death might be caused by a variety of other factors unrelated to Chauvin's actions, including Floyd's underlying heart problem and drug use, as well as the delay in paramedic's resuscitation efforts.
He said ignoring what happened during the 16 minutes and 59 seconds prior to the nine minutes and 29 seconds was not the "proper analysis."
"There's lots of what-ifs that could have happened. What could have happened, what should have happened. Lots of them in lots of regards," Nelson said. He asked the jury to view the case from the perspective "of a reasonable police officer at the precise moment with the totality of the circumstances when it comes to the use of force."
"When you review the entirety of the evidence, when you review the law as written and you conclude it all within this, all within a thorough and honest analysis. The state has failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt," Nelson said. "Therefore, Mr. Chauvin should be found not guilty of all counts."
Chauvin was charged with second-degree and third-degree murder as well as second-degree manslaughter, all of which he had pleaded not guilty to.
The 12 jurors who heard the closing argument started deliberating the verdict later in the afternoon. They will have to rely on recollections of the highly publicized trial, which lasted three weeks, and notes they were allowed to take during the process in reaching at the verdict. Enditem
