Judge refuses to isolate jury in George Floyd murder case

Judge Peter Cahill said he will not sequester the jury until next Monday, when he anticipates closing arguments will begin.

The judge in the George Floyd murder case refused a defense request to immediately sequester the jury Monday, the morning after the killing of a Black man during a traffic stop triggered unrest in a suburb just outside Minneapolis.

In this image Defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, and defendant, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, right, listen Monday, April 12, 2021, as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over motions in the trial of Chauvin at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd.(AP)

The request came from the attorney for former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin. Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that the jurors could be influenced by the prospect of what might happen as a result of their verdict.

“Ultimately, your honor, the question becomes will the jury be competent to make a decision regardless of the potential outcome of their decision," Nelson said.

Judge Peter Cahill said he will not sequester the jury until next Monday, when he anticipates closing arguments will begin. He also denied a defense request to question jurors about what they might have seen about unrest following Sunday’s police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center.

In the wake of the shooting, hundreds of protesters broke into about 20 businesses at a shopping center, jumped on police cars and hurled rocks and other objects at officers in Brooklyn Center, about 10 miles from the heavily fortified Minneapolis courthouse. Police in riot gear fired gas and flash-bang grenades.

When testimony resumed Monday morning, Dr. Jonathan Rich, a cardiology expert from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, echoed earlier witnesses in saying Floyd died of low oxygen levels from the way he was held down by police.

He rejected defense theories that Floyd died of a drug overdose or a heart condition. Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system and had high blood pressure and narrowing of the heart arteries, according to previous testimony.

“It was the truly the prone restraint and positional restraints that led to his asphyxiation,” Rich said.

In fact, the expert said, "Every indicator is that Mr. Floyd had actually an exceptionally strong heart.”

Rich said he had reviewed Floyd’s autopsy report. He said that some narrowing of the arteries is extremely common, and that Floyd had a mildly thickened or mildly enlarged heart but that that would be normal in someone with high blood pressure.

Corroborating other experts' testimony, Rich said that Floyd was “restrained in a life-threatening manner,” noting among other things that he was facedown on the ground, a knee was on his neck, his hands were cuffed behind his back and being pushed upward, and a knee was on the lower half of his body.

Rich said that as one officer noted on video that Floyd was passing out, police probably still could have saved his life if they had repositioned him so that his lungs could expand again. And once an officer noted that Floyd's pulse had stopped, police still had a significant opportunity to save his life by administering CPR, he said.

On cross-examination, Nelson tried to shift blame onto Floyd for struggling with police when they tried to put him in their car. The defense attorney asked Rich if Floyd would have survived if he had “simply gotten in the back seat of the squad car."

But Rich quickly reiterated the death was caused by the officers' actions: “Had he not been restrained in the way in which he was, I think he would have survived that day. I think he would have gone home, or wherever he was going to go.”

Nelson responded: “So, in other words, if he had gotten in the squad car, he’d be alive.”

Derek Chauvin, 45, who is white, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s May 25 death. Police had been called to a neighborhood market where Floyd was accused of trying to pass a counterfeit bill.

Prosecutors say Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck as the 46-year-old Black man lay pinned to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes. Bystander video of Floyd crying “I can't breathe!” until he finally went limp sparked protests and scattered violence in Minneapolis and around the U.S.

Chauvin's attorney is expected to call his own medical experts to make the case that it was not the officer's knee that killed Floyd. The defense has not said whether Chauvin will testify.