New photos of Floyd’s injuries were displayed in court for the first time
The photos showed bruises to the left side of his face, as well as his bloodied shoulder and knuckles from being pinned to the ground.
Derek Chauvin “betrayed the badge” the day George Floyd died, prosecutors said Monday during closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial — as jurors saw never-before-seen photos of Floyd’s injuries.
“That day, his badge wasn’t in the right place,” prosecutor Steve Schleicher told jurors in Hennepin County District Court. “He knew better. He just didn’t do better. This was not an accident.”
“He betrayed the badge and everything it stood for,” Schleicher said. “It’s not how they’re trained. It’s not following the rules.
“This is not an anti-police prosecution. It’s a pro-police prosecution.”
Schleicher told the panel that Floyd begged for his life “until he could speak no more” while Chauvin pressed a knee to his neck.
“George Floyd’s final words on May 25, 2020, were, ‘Please, I can’t breathe,’” he said. “Please, I can’t breathe.”
“Nine minutes and 29 seconds,” Schleicher said. “During this time, George Floyd struggled, desperate to breathe, to make enough room in his chest to breathe.”
“The force was too much,” he continued. “He was trapped. He was trapped with the unyielding pavement underneath, as unyielding as the men who held him down, pushing him.”
Schleicher also addressed claims by the defense that Floyd had to be restrained because he was larger and stronger than Chauvin.
“There was no superhuman strength that day,” he said. “There’s no superhuman strength because there’s no such thing as superman strength. Those exist in comic books.”
“Only humans,” he added. “Just a man. Just a man lying on the pavement, being pressed upon. Desperately crying out. A grown man crying out for his mother.”
Schleicher said Floyd was “so desperate to breathe, he pushed with his face — with his face — to lift himself, to open his chest, to give his lungs room to breathe.”
He also disputed defense claims that carbon monoxide fumes from the exhaust of a police vehicle contributed to Floyd’s death.
“You heard about carbon monoxide. A car killed him,” Schleicher said. “This wasn’t carbon monoxide. That’s just a story, and it’s simply wrong.”
In addition, he refuted the defense’s contention that Floyd, who had fentanyl and methamphetamines in his system, died from a drug overdose.
“This looked nothing like a fentanyl overdose,” Schleicher said. “He did not die of a drug overdose. That’s not how he died.”
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson is due to present closing arguments later today.
The closing arguments in the case come on the 15th day of the trial, with prosecutors calling 38 witnesses and the defense seven over nearly three weeks.
Chauvin, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Prosecutors relied heavily on footage of Floyd’s death throughout the trial, repeatedly showing the jury multiple angles of the incident.
Medical and use-of-force experts — and police brass who included Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo — also testified that Floyd died as a result of Chauvin’s restraint and said the restraint is improper.
Defense attorneys countered that Floyd died as a result of drug use and a pre-existing heart condition, not Chauvin’s actions.
They also argued that Chauvin used proper and “reasonable” restraint, and said the ex-cop was distracted by an increasingly hostile crowd of bystanders.
This is an excerpt from the New York Post.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.