Law (US)

Teen who filmed killing tells court George Floyd was ‘begging for his life’

The woman who recorded the shocking video of Derek Floyd’s death that prompted mass protests for racial justice around the world has told the Derek Chauvin murder trial of her feelings of guilt at being unable to intervene to save his life.

Darnella Frazier, who at times sobbed as she gave evidence on the second day of Chauvin’s trial in Minneapolis, said that she still loses sleep over the killing of the 46 year-old Black man.

“I ended up apologising and apologising to George Floyd for not doing more,” she said.

But, Frazier added, it is not about what she should have done.

“It’s what he should have done,” she said in apparent reference to the Chauvin.

Frazier was 17 when she recorded the video as a bystander.

Chauvin, 45, who is white, has denied charges of second- and third-degree murder, and manslaughter, over the death of Floyd last May. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge

Frazier’s more than nine-minute video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as he lies prone on the ground outraged millions of people in the US and beyond in part because the now former Minneapolis police officer ignored increasingly desperate pleas from Floyd as he repeatedly said he could not breathe.

Prosecutors have presented Frazier’s video as compelling evidence of Chauvin’s guilt.

“You can believe your eyes, that it was homicide, it was murder,” one of the prosecutors, Jerry Blackwell, told the court in his opening statement on Monday.

Frazier, who is now 18, said she began recording the incident because Floyd looked “terrified and scared, begging for his life”.

She was so horrified by coming across the scene that she told her younger cousin to go into a food store so she would not have to see it, the court heard.

The prosecution used Frazier to reinforce the case they are building that Chauvin maliciously kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even when it was clear the detained man was not resisting arrest and was increasingly in danger.

Frazier said that despite the appeals from the crowd, Chauvin did not ease up as he pinned Floyd down.

“He had like, this cold look,” she said. “It seemed as if he didn’t care.”

At another point, Frazier said Chauvin reacted to appeals from the crowd by increasing the pressure on Floyd.

“If anything he was kneeling harder, like he was shoving his knee into his neck,” she said.

The prosecution’s questioning of witnesses through the second day sought to established that police officers did nothing to help Floyd despite his growing distress and struggle to breathe.

Prosecutors also sought to head off defence claims that Chauvin’s actions were influenced by threats to his and other officers safety from an increasingly alarmed crowd of bystanders.

Frazier denied defence claims that the police were threatened by the growing crowd. She said they wanted to intervene to help Floyd, who was in distress.

“Anytime anyone tried to get close, they [the police] were defensive,” she said.

Frazier said she felt threatened by the police officers, including Chauvin, who put their hands on the containers of mace spray that officers carry.

Genevieve Hansen, a Minneapolis firefighter with emergency medical training who was off duty and passing by, testified that the police would not let her give medical attention to Floyd.

“He wasn’t moving and he was cuffed. Three grown men putting their weight on was too much,” she said. “It didn’t take me long to realise that he had an altered state of consciousness.”

Hansen said her training told her that he needed immediate help.

“What I needed to know was whether he had a pulse anymore,” she told the court.

Hansen said she identified herself as a firefighter with medical training to one of the officers, Tou Thao, who was not restraining Floyd but was keeping onlookers at bay and in effect standing guard for Chauvin.

She said Thao responded that if she really was a firefighter she should know better than to get involved.

“I tried to be reasonable and then I tried to be assertive,” she said. “I pled and was desperate.”

Hansen said she felt helpless because there was a man being killed in front of her and she was denied the opportunity to help him.

Earlier in the day, another witness to Floyd’s death said that he called the emergency services during the incident because “I believed I witnessed a murder”.

Donald Williams, a mixed martial arts fighter, said he pleaded with Chauvin to stop what he termed a dangerous “blood choke” on Floyd.

“You could see that he was going through tremendous pain,” said Williams. “You could see his eyes go back in his head … You could see he was trying to gasp for air.”

Williams told the closely watched trial he was prevented from intervening to help Floyd by Thao who pushed him in the chest and back on to the curb.

Williams said he raised his voice in anger but did not otherwise intervene “for fear of myself and fear of people around me” from the officers.

As Floyd was taken away by ambulance, Williams called the 911 emergency number to report what he believed to be a crime – essentially calling the police on the police.

He can be heard repeatedly saying “murderers bro” on the call, audio of which was played in court.

On cross examination, defence lawyer Eric Nelson put it to Williams that he was increasingly angry and threatening as he taunted Chauvin by calling him “a bum” at least 13 times, “a bitch” and telling him that “within next two years you will shoot yourself”.

Williams denied he was letting his anger get the better of him.

Thao – and two other officers who were next to Chauvin and helping restrain Floyd – are scheduled to be tried together later this year on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

The trial continues.

View Source

‘Best and brightest’: Biden announces ‘trailblazing’ slate of judicial nominees

Joe Biden has announced a “trailblazing” set of federal judicial nominees, 11 picks including three Black women.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, a US district judge, was nominated on Tuesday to replace attorney general Merrick Garland on the influential US appeals court for the District of Columbia circuit.

In 2016, Garland was nominated for the supreme court by Barack Obama but blocked from even receiving a hearing by Republicans determined to fill the vacancy themselves.

It was a hugely dramatic gambit by then Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, as he set out to transform the federal judiciary. With McConnell’s help, Donald Trump was able to do so.

On the campaign trail last year, Biden pledged to name the first Black woman to the supreme court. Jackson, who regularly clashed with the Trump administration, now moves into that spotlight. Many liberals are eyeing retirement for Stephen Breyer, at 82 the oldest member of the court, for whom Jackson once clerked.

When she was sworn in as a district judge, in May 2013, Breyer delivered the oath.

“She sees things from different points of view,” he said, “and she sees somebody else’s point of view and understands it.”

In December, Biden asked senators for a diverse slate of possible judicial picks.

“We are particularly focused on nominating individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench,” he said, “including those who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys and those who represent Americans in every walk of life.”

His first set of picks, which the Washington Post called “the largest and earliest batch … by a new administration in decades”, also includes the first Muslim named to a district court.

In a statement to the Post, Biden said: “This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession.

“Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our constitution and impartially to the American people – and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience and perspective that makes our nation strong.”

Nomination hearings could begin in April. Biden and the Democratic Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, have work to do.

McConnell and Trump placed three justices on the supreme court, giving it a 6-3 conservative majority. But the extensive reshaping of the judiciary below the highest court could be their most lasting legacy.

Observers have noted, for example, that though punitive voting rights restrictions being passed in Republican-led states are being challenged in court, the judiciary that will hear such cases is heavily staffed with conservatives.

McConnell was proud of his ruthlessness, telling Fox News there was one reason so many vacancies were left for Trump to fill.

“I’ll tell you why,” he said, in December 2019. “I was in charge of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration.”

Last April, he told an interviewer his “motto for the year is leave no vacancy behind”.

Trump’s success contributed to his strength at the polls. In 2019, Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law, told the Guardian: “Not all conservatives are happy with a lot of things Trump has done, but on judges he’s killing it. It’s an across-the-board success that we’ve seen in this area.”

Biden must now attempt to begin to redress the balance.

On Tuesday he also named Candace Jackson-Akiwumi for the Chicago-based seventh circuit and Tiffany Cunningham for the federal circuit in Washington.

If confirmed, Zahid Quraishi, a New Jersey judge, will be the first Muslim American on a district court. Among other appointments, Florence Pan will if confirmed be the first Asian American woman on the DC district court, while Lydia Griggsby will be the first black woman on the Maryland district court.

Judge Rupa Ranga Puttagunta, a Washington DC local judge of Indian ancestry, is nominated for DC superior court.

View Source

Prosecutors accuse Derek Chauvin of killing George Floyd as trial starts

Prosecutors accused former police officer Derek Chauvin of killing a defenceless George Floyd by “grinding and crushing him until the very breath, the very life, was squeezed out of him”, at the opening on Monday of a murder trial regarded by millions as a litmus test of US police accountability.

The prosecutor, Jerry Blackwell, told the jury that the death of Floyd last May, which reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and set off months of protests across America and around the world, was caused by Chauvin keeping his knee on the neck of the dying man for more than nine minutes even after he stopped breathing.

“What Mr Chauvin was doing, he was doing deliberately,” Blackwell said as he outlined his case to the jury in the court room in Minneapolis, the city where Floyd was killed.

The prosecutor said Chauvin used excessive and unreasonable force “without regard for Floyd’s life”.

Blackwell said it was “an assault” that led to the victim’s death.

Chauvin, 45, has denied charges of second- and third-degree murder, and manslaughter, over the death of the 46-year-old African American man who was detained on suspicion of trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill last May.

The former officer, who was fired, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, told the jury in his opening statement that the evidence will show that Floyd was under the influence of drugs and that the force used against him was reasonable because of his behaviour.

Outside the fortified courthouse, the Floyd family lawyer, Benjamin Crump, declared the trial a test of American justice and said that the world is watching.

“Today starts a landmark trial that will be a referendum on how far America has come in its quest for equality and justice for all,” he said.

A group of protesters held signs that read “Minneapolis will never forget George Floyd” and “Mr George Floyd is not on trial, Derek Chauvin is”.

'America's on trial': family and supporters take a knee for George Floyd – video — ‘America’s on trial’: family and supporters take a knee for George Floyd – video

Blackwell showed the jury a nine-minute-and-29-second video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, the footage that had shocked millions of Americans last year and prompted the huge racial justice protests that swept the US and beyond.

“You can believe your eyes, that it was homicide, it was murder,” he told the jury, some of whom had not seen the video before.

In the recording, Floyd can be heard saying 20 times that he could not breathe and 10 times that he was dying.

He repeatedly called out for his dead mother. Blackwell said that the dying man can also he heard to say “Tell my kids I love them” and “I’ll probably die this way. I’m through, I’m through. They’re going to kill me.”

Blackwell said that Floyd was no longer breathing for the last minute that Chauvin was kneeling on his neck.

The prosecutor said that the officer not only failed to fulfill his legal duty to help Floyd but stopped anyone else from assisting him, including a firefighter trained in first aid.

Blackwell said that even when Chauvin was told by a paramedic that Floyd no longer had a pulse, the police officer kept his knee in place.

“You’ll see that he does not let up. He does not get up. Even when Mr Floyd does not even have a pulse, it continues on,” he said.

He said the jury will hear testimony from a police officer who arrived on the scene while Floyd was held down who will say that at that point there was no need for the force used by Chauvin.

The prosecutor also said that the Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo, who fired Chauvin shortly over Floyd’s death, will testify that the former officer’s conduct was “not consistent” with Minneapolis police department training or protocol.

“He will tell you it’s excessive force,” Blackwell said.

The prosecutor said that Floyd’s arrest was unnecessary in the first place as passing a counterfeit bill, even if intentional, is a misdemeanour for which the police could have written a ticket.

Nelson said in his opening statement that he will show that his client’s behaviour was reasonable under the circumstances because Floyd was under the influence of drugs at the time of his arrest.

He said witnesses testify that Floyd had taken opioid pills shortly before he was detained and that at times he “passed out”.

“The evidence will show that when confronted by police, Mr Floyd put drugs in his mouth in order to conceal them from police,” he said.

Nelson said that Floyd took a “speedball” of opioids and methamphetamine, and that as a result he was struggling violently against arrest which necessitated use of force.

“Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career,” he said.

The outcome of the trial may well centre on the cause of death.

Nelson said medical evidence will show the presence of drugs as well as other medical issues including coronary disease and an enlarged heart were the cause of death. He said there is no medical evidence of asphyxiation.

The official autopsy and an independent autopsy at the time concluded that the main cause of death was homicide.

Blackwell said: “This was not a heart attack.”

The first prosecution witness was a 911 dispatcher, Jena Scurry, who told a police supervisor she was concerned at seeing the officers “sat on this man” in a live feed from a street camera.

Blackwell said of Scurry’s testimony that “she called the police on the police”.

Later in the afternoon, prosecution witness Donald Williams, 33, told how he watched Floyd “slowly fade away” from close by, even as bystanders implored and berated the police holding him.

Williams told the court that he could hear and see Floyd in distress and his martial arts experience indicated to him that Chauvin was choking out Floyd as he kneeled on his neck.

The jury, and the public watching in court or around the world by livestream, was shown some devastating clips of Chauvin allegedly “shimmying” in what Williams said was a martial arts move, altering his position very slightly so that it put more pressure on – as a fighter does when they have someone in a hold.

Williams heard Floyd talking about how much pain he was in, his distress as he said he couldn’t breathe, apologized to the officers and begged for his life.

“The more that the knee was on his neck, and the shimmying going on, the more you see him [Floyd] slowly fade away. His eyes rolled to the back of his head,” Williams said.

He described Floyd dying “like a fish in a bag”.

Williams described the knee-position as a dangerous “blood choke” intended to cut Floyd’s airway.

Williams has previously been heard but unseen shouting angrily at the police from the sidewalk, calling Chauvin a “bum” and accusing him of enjoying what he was doing, as Floyd suffers and begs.

The trial continues.

View Source

‘Everything is riding on the outcome’: Minneapolis braces for Chauvin trial

The city of Minneapolis and millions across the US and around the world are bracing for Monday’s opening arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, who was Black, in the city last May.

Floyd’s death regalvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and set in motion the biggest US civil rights protests since the 1960s.

After bystander video went viral showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes during an arrest attempt, Americans coast to coast and thousands in cities overseas took to the streets.

Chauvin has denied the charges of murder and manslaughter against him and prosecutors are due to set out their case in the heavily fortified court building in downtown Minneapolis on Monday morning, in one of the most significant police brutality trials in US history.

Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defence attorney, has not said whether the former officer, who was fired shortly after Floyd’s killing, will testify.

The defence team will try to focus the jury on aspects such as the fact that the opioid fentanyl was found in Floyd’s system, as well as methamphetamine, and that he had underlying health conditions.

The official autopsy concluded that Floyd’s death was a homicide.

Keith Ellison, the prominent Minnesota attorney general, leads the prosecution team and will rely heavily on the damning video that shows Floyd pinned to the street with Chauvin kneeling on his neck, a hand in his pocket, seemingly impervious to Floyd’s waning cries that he can’t breathe.

Darnella Frazier, who was just 17 when she recorded the video that went viral, as two other police officers restrained Floyd’s torso and another fended off bystanders, will be called as a witness.

Members of Floyd’s family were expected to attend a vigil and protest on Sunday night at the spot where their 46-year-old relative died, a junction in southern Minneapolis now known as George Floyd Square.

Mileesha Smith, one of several community members who look after the square, which is marked with barricades, murals and tributes, said Floyd was part of a long history of police-involved deaths not just in the US, or Minnesota, but in that exact neighbourhood, with little justice forthcoming.

“George Floyd wasn’t the first person to be killed by police on this block, but [in the past] media wasn’t the way that it is and a lot of it got swept under the rug”

She was at work at an elderly care facility last May when the incident took place.

“I happened to look up at the TV and see that somebody is dying in the neighborhood I grew up in. Somebody died, flat out in front of the store that I grew up eating at,” she told the Guardian, adding: “How do we prevent this from happening? That could be my son. I have two sons.”

Public and media presence in the court room is severely restricted because of coronavirus.

For the first time in the state of Minnesota, TV cameras are able to film a full criminal trial, which Court TV is livestreaming.

But the public is watching for signs that police officers can be held accountable when someone dies in their custody.

Civil rights attorney and commentator Areva Martin said: “The family is seeking justice, the public is seeking accountability.”

“Historically, jurors have been reluctant to hold police officers accountable … What the US is showing is that it’s well past due to end systemic racism in policing, and that police officers are not above the law,” she told the Guardian.

Martin added: “The world is waiting to see if the US will be courageous enough to stand up to a system that has a history of violating the rights of African Americans and, rather than protecting those lives, has actually destroyed them.”

Keith Mayes, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s department of African American and African studies, said a conviction was necessary for policing to be reformed.

“Everything is riding on the outcome of the trial,” he said.

“Yes, Chauvin is on trial, and it’s about the Floyd murder. But an argument can be made it’s about all the other folks that didn’t receive justice, too,” he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

The right to peaceful protest will be respected during the trial, the city has pledged.

The three other police officers, all since fired, too, will stand trial in August for aiding and abetting murder.

On 12 March, Minneapolis agreed to pay a record $27m settlement to Floyd’s family.

Smith said: “I’m not saying that that settlement shouldn’t have been given, but the authorities are so quick to give to the dead and don’t invest in the life of Black people while they are living … things that people are trying to keep in the dark, housing, jobs.”

The case is expected to last for most of April and the verdict l will be closely watched after a year in which people demanded and took bold action toward systemic change, said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist in Minneapolis.

The former Minneapolis NAACP branch president has watched her community rise up in response to unchecked police violence, only to have their spirits crushed by an acquittal and lack of grand jury indictments in previous police killings, such as the high-profile cases of Philando Castile, a Black man killed by police in a nearby suburb in 2016, and Jamar Clark, a Black man killed by city police in 2015.

“We have for too long lived inside of a culture of ignorance, not just in the US but worldwide,” she said.

“I don’t think that this country in particular, but the world itself, has ever had to reconcile the mistreatment, the abuse and the dehumanization of Black folks. But for some people, they’re now beginning to see we have a problem, and we need to begin to take steps to address these problems.”

View Source

Derek Chauvin trial: jury grows after $27m settlement to Floyd family

Concern appears to be fading that a massive settlement for George Floyd’s family will derail the trial of a former police officer accused in his death, with most potential jurors saying they avoided news of the settlement or could set it aside.

Two jurors seated before news of the city’s $27m settlement broke last week were dismissed Wednesday after being re-questioned by Hennepin county judge Peter Cahill, but five others were retained and two were added later in the day.

Both sides presented arguments Thursday about whether the prosecution can call a forensic psychiatrist to tell the jury about Floyd’s behavior during the fatal encounter.
Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said Dr Sarah Vinson, of Atlanta, should be allowed to to testify how Floyd’s reactions to the officers’ attempts to put him into the squad car were consistent with any reasonable person’s anxiety or panic during a traumatic event. Police officers who confronted Floyd after he allegedly tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store put a gun in his face, and he told police he had claustrophobia.

The prosecution wants to show that he might have been unable to comply with the officers’ orders, rather than resisting arrest. But defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that if the prosecution gets to present that evidence to the jury, the defense should be able to tell the jury about Floyd’s drug arrest a year earlier, when he did not resist getting put into a squad car.

Nelson also has said there are striking similarities between the two encounters that could show a pattern of behavior from Floyd: both times, as officers drew their guns and struggled with Floyd, he called out for his mother, claimed he had been shot before and cried, and put what appeared to be pills in his mouth. Drugs were found in the first arrest, and an autopsy showed Floyd had drugs in his system when he died.
Cahill said he will rule on Vinson’s testimony on Friday, when he plans to issue a broader ruling on the admissibility of Floyd’s 2019 arrest and on defense motions for delaying or moving the trial.

Nine jurors have been selected through Wednesday. Five are men and four are women. According to the court, four are white, two are multiracial and three are Black, and their ages range from 20s to 50s.

Fourteen jurors, including two alternates, are needed for Chauvin’s trial on murder and manslaughter charges in Floyd’s death.

A woman who was questioned early Thursday was excused after she said she had been constantly exposed to news of Floyd’s death and that the announcement of the city’s settlement pushed her to favor the state’s position, which she was already leaning toward.

Cahill has set 29 March for opening statements if the jury is complete by then.

Chauvin is charged with murder and manslaughter in the 25 May death of Floyd, a Black man who was declared dead after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death, captured on bystander video, set off weeks of sometimes violent protests across the country and led to a national reckoning on racial justice.

Three other former officers face an August trial in Floyd’s death on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.

View Source

Jury selection gets under way in Derek Chauvin murder trial

Jury selection in the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in the killing of George Floyd began on Tuesday, after a 24-hour delay for legal reasons, with the first potential juror excused after she revealed during questioning that she thought the way the officer acted was “not fair”.

The woman said she saw bystander video showing Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck and did not understand why the officer didn’t get up when Floyd said he couldn’t breathe.

“That’s not fair because we are humans, you know?” she said.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson noted that the woman said on her questionnaire she wanted to be on the jury “to give my opinion of the unjust death of George Floyd”.

Potential jurors must show they can set aside their opinions and view evidence fairly.

The woman said she would be willing to change her mind if she saw evidence from a different perspective, but Nelson used one of his 15 challenges to dismiss her without providing a reason.

Up to three weeks have been allocated for jury selection. Opening arguments are not due before 29 March and presentation of evidence is expected to take two to four weeks.

Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Jury selection is proceeding despite uncertainty over whether a third-degree murder charge will be added, following an appeals court ruling last Friday.

The state has asked the Minnesota court of appeals to stop proceedings until that is resolved, because of fears that going ahead without the roster of charges being solidified could give Chauvin grounds for appeal or lead to the collapse of the case.

That could mean a delay of weeks or months but the judge, Peter Cahill, has resisted pressure from prosecutors.

Floyd, who was Black, was declared dead on 25 May last year after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against his neck for almost nine minutes, holding his position and casually keeping one hand in his pocket as Floyd begged for his life, persisting even after Floyd went limp.

The killing sparked the biggest civil rights uprising in the US since the 1960s, spilling over at times into rioting but reinvigorating the Black Lives Matter movement and forcing a fresh reckoning on police brutality and systemic racism.

Chauvin and three other officers were fired and arrested. The others face an August trial on aiding and abetting charges.

Cahill ruled on several pre-trial motions on Tuesday, setting parameters for testimony.

He said jurors will hear when Chauvin stopped working for the police department but they will not be told he was fired or that the city made a “substantial offer” to settle a lawsuit from Floyd’s family. Those details could imply guilt, Cahill said.

The city had no immediate comment on the settlement offer. A message left with an attorney for the Floyd family was not immediately returned.

Hundreds protest in the name of George Floyd in Minneapolis – video

Cahill also ruled that a firefighter heard in the bystander video urging the officers to check Floyd’s pulse will be allowed to testify about what she saw and whether she thought medical intervention was needed.

But she will not be allowed to speculate that she could have saved Floyd if she had intervened. Testimony on Chauvin’s training will be allowed.

Hundreds gathered outside court on Monday, many carrying signs such as “Justice for George Floyd”, “Convict Killer Cops” and “The whole world is watching”.

Floyd’s sister, Bridgett Floyd, sat in the back of the courtroom for part of the proceedings, her hands crossed in her lap.

Chauvin did not have a family member or supporter in the courtroom, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on Tuesday.

View Source