By 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.
Former policeman Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd. Photo: AFP / Hennepin County Jail
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 25 May, 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 cellphone video of Chauvin, who is white, with his knee on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, saying it showed Chauvin "grinding and crushing him until the very breath - no, ladies and gentlemen - the very life was squeezed out of him".
Floyd's death ignited a global protest movement and over the preceding two weeks of jury selection, many jurors told Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill and the lawyers on each side that they recognised the scrutiny their deliberations would come under, not least by those who view the trial as a reckoning for how Black people are policed in the United States.
"It's been a long time coming," a gospel choir sang on Sunday evening at a prayer service attended by Floyd's relatives. "But I know a change is gonna come."
The service was held in a church a few blocks east of the deadly arrest.
Philonise Floyd, a brother of George Floyd, said before the service began that he had faith that prosecutors from the Minnesota attorney general's office would see Chauvin convicted.
"The video is the proof," he said.
Crowds marched on 28 March during a protest called 'All Eyes on Justice', which was created for the purpose of reminding the judge and influencers that there are eyes on the trial. Photo: AFP
Chauvin, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, with his lawyers arguing that he followed his training and that the main cause of Floyd's death, which the county examiner ruled a homicide, was a drug overdose. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge.
The courtroom in a tower in downtown Minneapolis was ringed with concrete barriers, barbed wire and soldiers from the state's National Guard. For blocks around, businesses are closed and windows boarded up, fearing a repeat of the arson and other property damage that occurred after Floyd's death.
Less than three miles away, residents maintain a vigil at the intersection where Chauvin kept his knee on a handcuffed Floyd's neck for about nine minutes as Floyd uses his final breaths to plead for his life.
Chauvin and three other officers were arresting Floyd on suspicion of passing a fake $20 bill at the Cup Foods grocery store nearby.
Four sets of barricades block police from coming to the intersection, now called George Floyd Square, which is filled with flowers, posters, murals and other tributes to Floyd.
A memorial near the site where George Floyd died. Photo: AFP
The jury, including three alternates, is made up of six white women, three white men, three Black men, one Black woman and two multiracial women, according to court records.
"I'm thankful that it is a diverse jury," Paris Stevens, a cousin of Floyd who works as a nurse in North Carolina, said in a telephone interview.
"I'm very anxious because you don't know what's going to happen, but I'm just glad that this process is starting."
She and other relatives have been told by the court they must take turns in using a single chair reserved for Floyd's family in the courtroom, which has been kitted out with plexiglass screens, hand-sanitiser stations and other anti-coronavirus measures.
Chauvin has also been allocated a single chair for his supporters, which has not been used by anyone since the trial began with jury selection on 8 March except for the occasional sheriff's deputy overseeing security wanting to take the weight off his feet.
Legal experts have noted that US police officers have almost never been found criminally liable for killing a citizen.
From left: Attorney Ben Crump, Rev Al Sharpton and the family of George Floyd kneel for 8.46 minutes during a news conference on 29 March Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo: AFP
Chauvin's lawyers have said they would try to convince the jury that the fentanyl, an opioid painkiller, found in Floyd's blood by the medical examiner played a bigger role in killing Floyd than the officer's restraint.
Rev Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist who joined the Floyd family at Sunday's service, echoed prosecutors in calling this an "attempt to smear his name".
On Monday morning outside the courthouse, Sharpton, Floyd's relatives and local activists silently got down on one knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds in a tribute to Floyd.
Former Maryland prosecutor and a Georgetown law professor Tiffany Jeffers said she saw the defendant's case as an uphill battle in part because of the widely seen video. All members of the jury have said they already saw at least snippets of it.
"This video is just so powerful," Jeffers said.
- Reuters