The defense attorney for Derek Chauvin stated during the closing argument on Monday, April 19, 2021, that the former Minneapolis officer’s behavior was “reasonable” during his restrained arrest of George Floyd that eventually led to his death.
Chauvin’s lead lawyer, Eric Nelson, argued that Chauvin behaved as any “reasonable police officer” would have.
“There is absolutely no evidence that officer Chauvin intentionally, purposefully applied unlawful force,” Nelson said. He added, “the use of force is an incredibly difficult analysis. You can’t limit it to 9 minutes and 29 seconds, but it started nearly 17 minutes earlier.”
The fact that Chauvin continued kneeling on Floyd knowing that bystanders were filming him, is sufficient evidence that Chauvin believed he was responding to the scene in a reasonable way, Nelson said.
“In this case, the totality of the circumstances that were known to a reasonable police officer in the precise moment the force was used demonstrates that this was an authorized use of force, as unattractive as it may be,” Nelson told the jury. “And this is reasonable doubt.”
The prosecution, meanwhile, told jurors to “believe your eyes” as he replayed video of George Floyd’s death on Memorial Day 2020, where the life slowly seeped out of him under the knee of Derek Chauvin.
“You can believe your eyes,” the prosecutor said, arguing that Floyd died from asphyxiation brought on from acute oxygen deprivation. “It’s exactly what you knew. It’s what you felt in your gut. It’s what you felt in your heart.
“This wasn’t policing; this was murder,” Schleicher added. “Facing George Floyd that day that did not require one ounce of courage, and none was shown on that day. All that was required was a little compassion and none was shown on that day.”
