Defense strategy in Chauvin murder trial emerges by end of first week

By Carolyn Yeager

ON DAY FOUR, I thought I saw the defense strategy revealing itself, and on day five it was very clear to me. It's exactly as attorney Eric Nelson told the jury in his opening statement—that the law will instruct them to find the defendant “not guilty” if they have “reasonable doubt” that his actions were a culpable contributing factor in George Floyd's death.

That is, each juror must be convinced “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the treatment of Floyd by Chauvin was a substantial cause of unnecessary death, over and above other medical causes that will be testified to by medical 'experts' later in the trial. “Reasonable doubt” is the key concept here, and what might save Derek Chauvin … if anything can.

Nelson will argue that then-Officer Derek Chauvin was following the procedures and practices he learned in his police training when called onto the scene to backup arresting offices Thomas Lane and Alexander Kueng. Chauvin was the senior officer of the four policemen who were now present, with the other three, including his partner Tou Thao, all being relative newbies on the force who quickly deferred to him. In fact, the two officers Lane and Kueng were assigned to the Park Police, not the regular MPD.

On days three to five, the only witnesses with relevant testimony regarding guilt or innocence of the defendant were the paramedics Bravinder and Smith (Day 4), and Homicide Detective Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman (Day 5). The two paramedics were questioned by another Assistant Attorney General from Minnesota AG Keith Ellison's office, a Miss Erin Eldridge. She comes across to me as even more incompetent than her co-equal, Asst. AG Matthew Frank! Plain to me that Democrat-run states do not mind incompetence and prefer the worst over the best.

Seth Bravender testified that the time it took the medics to arrive on the scene was about 6 minutes, although I would like for that to be more definitely established. He said they received a Code 2 call first (non-emergency medical call), with the change to code 3 (emergency medical call with lights and sirens) coming about a minute and a half later. I'm not clear if the 6 minutes is before or after the Code 3 went into effect, but I'm thinking it's after. No one, however, mentioned that this was an inordinately long time. Code 2 was first sent because of Floyd's bloody nose, but after realizing Floyd was in greater distress than was at first apparent, the officers changed it to Code 3. That seems responsible enough.

On cross examination, Nelson established that Bravender had told earlier investigators that when he arrived at the scene he observed that Floyd was lying on his left side. [According to Lieutenant Zimmerman, that is the correct position.]

Lt. Zimmerman was the most senior MPD investigator who arrived at the scene late on May 25, until he handed the entire case over to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) around 10 p.m or so. At that point all further investigation was completely out of the hands of the Minneapolis Police Dept. When George Floyd died while in police custody, it moved into the category of a “critical incident” in which “use of force” becomes the focus of the investigation. Lt. Zimmerman testified he was clearly of the opinion that the force used by officer Chauvin, keeping his knee on Floyd's neck while he was lying on his stomach for 9 minutes, was excessive force. Effective cross examination by Nelson brought out contradictions in Zimmerman's testimony in that he agreed to both sides of a few questions, seemingly through lack of thorough knowledge of this case.

Prosecution

The strategy of the prosecution (comprising the city and police department) has been clear from the beginning: to offer up a scapegoat on which the angry black community can vent its frustration and hopefully defuse much of their anger. And along with this, we'll have to accept the eternal “hero-status” and martrydom of a petty, long-time criminal and all-round low-life named George Floyd. This is unacceptable to many people, of whom I am one. We already have Martin Luther King; now we'd have to add innumerable tributes and monuments to George Floyd?

I just can't see it.

I still believe it's possible a big WAKE-UP could effect and influence this trial, mainly because I do think we are in the midst of a “Great Awakening” generally for millions in this year 2021. Just look at what's been happening, and doesn't stop either but one outrage after another continues to pile up. Those who say it's 'the same thing repeating itself' are wrong because nothing repeats itself. We're always in a new “Now.” For that reason I'm hopeful, and looking forward to what next week will bring. There are bound to be a few surprises. Pray for Eric Nelson.