Derek Chauvin - The African Mirror

Apr

2021

Chauvin lawyer loses bid to sequester jury after police shoot Black man near Minneapolis

JONATHAN ALLEN THE judge in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis policeman charged with George Floyd's deadly arrest last May, denied a defence request yesterday to sequester the jurors after police in a neighbouring city fatally shot a Black man. Testimony resumed in the murder trial as the prosecution called an expert in cardiology, Dr. Jonathan Rich, to testify that Floyd died as a result of the restraint used on him by police rather than a drug overdose, as suggested by the defense. Rich also said Chauvin had multiple opportunities to save Floyd's life. Prosecutors are nearing the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘This is their blood’: Civil rights lawyer Crump fights for George Floyd’s family

WORLD

MAKINI BRICE AS the world follows the often emotional testimony in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering George Floyd, members of Floyd's family watch a live feed in a separate room in the courthouse. Frequently by their side is civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who heads the family's legal team. Floyd and his brothers often slept in the same bed as children, with Floyd playing the role of protector, Crump says. "For us, it's a case. It's a cause. It's a hashtag," Crump told Reuters. "For them ... it's their family. This is…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Arrest videos undercut Derek Chauvin’s murder trial defense, pathologist tells jury

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN A forensic pathologist testified on Friday that the sheer volume of videos of George Floyd's arrest helped confirm the finding that oxygen deprivation caused his death, not an opioid overdose, as argued by lawyers for the former Minneapolis officer on trial for his murder. Dr Lindsey Thomas said she agreed with the findings of the Hennepin County medical examiner who ruled Floyd's death was a homicide caused by the way Derek Chauvin and other officers pinned him to the ground on May 25, 2020. "There's never been case I was involved in that had videos over such a…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Spark of life’: jury to hear from George Floyd’s brother in quirk of Minnesota law

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN and JOSEPH AX BEFORE resting their case in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, prosecutors are planning to show the jury photographs of George Floyd as a younger man and question one of Floyd's brothers, who is expected to recall Floyd's close relationship with his mother. The pictures and reminiscences are not intended to shed any light on the central question before the jury: whether Chauvin, who is white, committed a crime during his deadly arrest of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, when he knelt on Floyd's neck for some nine minutes.…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Chauvin disregarded training in deadly encounter with George Floyd – witnesses

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN and BRENDAN O’BRIEN PROSECUTORS in Derek Chauvin's murder trial have presented a series of witnesses in a bid to show that the former Minneapolis police officer disregarded his training when he knelt on George Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Lieutenant Johnny Mercil, who teaches the proper use of force for the department, told jurors the neck restraint applied by Chauvin during the deadly arrest of Floyd was unauthorized. Officers are trained to use the least amount of force necessary to subdue a suspect, he said. During the May 2020 arrest, the handcuffed 46-year-old Black man fell limp…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘A knee on a neck can kill’

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN A Minneapolis homicide investigator said police officer Derek Chauvin used "totally unnecessary" deadly force when kneeling on George Floyd's neck during an arrest last May in testimony at Chauvin's murder trial yesterday. Chauvin, who is white, was fired by the city's police department the day after he was captured on video on top of a dying Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, in a scene that sparked protests against police brutality around the world. "Totally unnecessary," Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman told the jury when prosecutors asked him what he thought of Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd's neck…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Three takeaways from the George Floyd murder trial

WORLD

Here are three takeaways from yesterday's testimony at the trial of former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, accused of killing George Floyd, a Black man whose death in May led to protests against racial injustice in cities worldwide: * Floyd's girlfriend Courteney Ross, 45, testified they were a loving couple who struggled with an addiction to painkillers. Chauvin's lawyers argue Floyd's death was the result of an overdose, but the Floyd family's lawyers said in a statement: "Tens of thousands of Americans struggle with self-medication and opioid abuse and are treated with dignity, respect and support, not brutality." Months ago the…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

A ‘grinding and crushing’ knee on George Floyd

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN FORMER Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin squeezed the life out of George Floyd when he arrested him last May, a prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement at Chauvin's trial on murder charges on Monday. 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." "You will learn that on May 25, Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of George Floyd," Blackwell said. He displayed a still image from a bystander's…