Prosecution in George Floyd trial presents their arguments against former police officer Chauvin скачать в хорошем качестве

Prosecution in George Floyd trial presents their arguments against former police officer Chauvin

Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin squeezed the life out of George Floyd while joining other officers in arresting him last May, a prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement at Chauvin's murder trial in a heavily fortified courthouse on Monday (March 29). Jerry Blackwell, a prosecutor with the Minnesota attorney general's office, told jurors that officers who wear the Minneapolis police badge pledge to never use "unnecessary force or violence." "We are bringing this case, this prosecution against Mr. Chauvin, for the excessive force that he applied on the body of Mr. George Floyd, for engaging in behavior that was imminently dangerous in the force that he applied without regard for its impact on the life of Mr. George Floyd," said Blackwell, who addressed the jury for just shy of an hour. He displayed a still image from a bystander's cellphone video of Chauvin, who his white, with his knee on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, saying it showed Chauvin "grinding and crushing him until the very breath - no, ladies and gentlemen - the very life was squeezed out of him." Floyd's death ignited a global protest movement over police brutality against Black people. In the preceding two weeks of jury selection, many jurors told Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill and the lawyers on each side that they recognized the scrutiny their deliberations would come under, not least by those who view the trial as a reckoning for how Black people are policed in the United States. Prosecutors played the most widely seen bystander video to jurors on Monday. Chauvin, dressed in a gray suit, a blue face mask and a blue shirt and tie, took pages of notes on a yellow legal pad as the dying moans of Floyd and the yelling of horrified onlookers filled the courtroom. Chauvin, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, with his lawyers arguing that he followed his training and that the main cause of Floyd's death, which the county examiner ruled a homicide, was a drug overdose. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge. The Minneapolis Police Department fired Chauvin and the three other officers involved the day after the arrest.