I previously wrote that the key to conviction in the Derek Chauvin trial (and avoiding a cascading failure in all four cases) is the autopsy findings and the role of drugs (including fentanyl) in the body of George Floyd. Prosecutors are now asking the jury to effectively dismiss the findings of the only official autopsy in the case and insist, contrary to those findings, that Floyd died from asphyxia, or, lack of oxygen. Some new disclosures may make that claim more difficult for the prosecution.
Last week, special prosecutor Jerry Blackwell admitted to jurors that Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker pointed to cardiac arrest as Floyd’s cause of death. However, he insisted that the state would prove that “was … not a fatal heart event,” but asphyxiation.
It is a bold move since it could invite reasonable doubt on the cause of death. The question is whether a case of manslaughter could have been advanced without the need of opposing the state’s own coroner on such findings. The failure of Chauvin to respond to a medical emergency speaks more to manslaughter than murder but it could be framed consistently with these findings. Instead, the prosecution has asked the jury to effectively reject the coroner’s findings — a risky maneuver.
We have previously discussed key defense elements in the case:
Conversely, Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, sounds more like the typical prosecutor noting that there is only one official autopsy and one official report on the cause of death. He told the jury “Dr. Baker found none of what are referred to as the telltale signs of asphyxiation. There was no evidence that Mr. Floyd’s airflow was restricted and he did not determine [it] to be a positional or mechanical asphyxia death.”
Nelson can rely on other aspects of the official record. When Baker went over findings in a meeting last December with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, he specifically noted that the knee restraint was not likely to produce asphyxiation: “[I]t appeared to Dr. Baker that the pressure to the neck was coming from the back or posterior lateral portions of the back, and none of these strictures would impact breathing or cause loss of consciousness,” said a document summarizing the meeting.” He noted a study that found that placing 200 pounds of weight or more on a healthy person did not have an “observable impact on breathing.”
Instead, Baker cited the drugs in the system as well as the 75-80% narrowing of coronary arteries that “put him at risk for a sudden cardiac arrest.” The record of the meeting states “Dr. Baker offered that one possibility for the pathway of Floyd’s death is that Floyd’s heart was starting to fail because of the stress, drugs, enlarged heart, and [heart] disease . . . He said that once the heart starts to fail … one of the symptoms is the perception that you cannot breathe.”
After those findings were released, Baker’s office had to be put under police protections due to threats to him and his staff.
By focusing the jury on the autopsy report, and asking them to effectively dismiss the conclusions of the only official report, the prosecutors increase the chances of a hung jury and even an acquittal. I previously expressed reservations about the push for murder charges because the case is better suited for a manslaughter case. If a jury feels the prosecutors have over-charged a case, it can produce a loss of credibility in the case. When you add an argument to dismiss the state’s own autopsy findings, you risk magnifying such skepticism or mistrust with jury members.
The blog member is letting me comment. My name is Ted. I was in a cave in Arizona and the tunnel collapsed in January 2020. I had access to fresh water. There were rats, bats and some fish. I survived by cutting them up with my pocket knife and eating them raw. There was a chunk of light coming down from an open sliver but it wasn’t wide enough to crawl out. Two days ago I swam down the water tube and emerged. I almost drowned.
The Covid society is hard to fathom.
I’m glad to be free but my town is not free.
I need a vacine.
Oh, I had a covid test and had caught covid from a bat. I hate the mask eating. I’m going back to a cave.
The autopsy report stops a guilty verdict based on proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
The dead guy was probably a tobacco smoker.
That killed 480000 Americans last year
Harp of Darkness
Here are a VERY few of the lies that have been that progressives and Democrats have told to the American public: Hands up Don’t Shoot, Biden is competent to be president, Cuomo was the gold standard for Covid management (quote by Biden), January 6 was armed insurrection, there’s no voter fraud, George Floyd was innocent and killed by Chauvin. Too bad the American people are becoming too ignorant/manipulated by the Press and Democrats to know the truth.
I disagree. There is a simple explanation for the evasive and intentionally-deceptive Autopsy Report — the bias of Baker in favor of the involved police officers, and that bias urging him toward a Report that could exonerate the officers.
Cardiopulmonary arrest is not a cause of death, it is a hallmark of death. Therefore, Baker was evasive in giving a cause-of-death.
Where was he deceptive? The autopsy “revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation”.
Unpack the construction of this sentence. The M.E. had evidence of hypoxia and highly-elevated carbon dioxide from the blood workup that would be strongly associated with asphyxia, which includes respiratory function suppressed by any cause. He craftily inserts the phrase “physical findings” to shift attention away from blood chemistry while setting up a straw-man of tracheal compression (strangulation) — a “narrative” suggested by “knee on neck” use-of-force — but one which could be easily knocked down by lack of bruising in front of the neck.
The deception is in steering the reader away from a blood choke, and away from holding the suspect in a prone position for up to 9 minutes.
Also not mentioned yet at trial is placing Mr. Floyd on the ground with his head close to the exhaust tailpipe of the police cruiser, whose engine had been left running by Officer Kane (as can be seen in his body cam video first arriving at Cup Foods). There is no body-cam evidence that the engine was ever turned off. Therefore, in the absence of such evidence, there is the potential that Mr. Floyd was made to breath carbon monoxide fumes the entire time he was restrained.
The M.E., in my opinion, engaged in professional misconduct in performing the Autopsy and both versions of the Report, and still needs to be held accountable. Being called to the witness stand, and then having his work product ripped by the D.A. might suit that purpose.
“►Floyd notably repeatedly said that he could not breathe while sitting in the police cruiser and before he was ever restrained on the ground. That is consistent with the level of fentanyl in his system that can cause “slowed or stopped breathing.””
Oddly, this is also sympotomatic of someone kneeling on your neck for a long time, upwards of 3 minutes of which where you were unconscious.
Every one of your bullet points is a reach, Jon. Especially when expert testimony proves that a) yes, severly limiting someone’s oxygen supply can cause heart failure because the actions of the heart and lungs are inextricably linked.
And, a level of fentanyl ‘above what a normal pain patient’ has is not necessarily fatal, especially if someone has an addiction. This phenomenon exists with all drugs. There are people who die from .4 alcohol toxicity while others have been pulled over driving a car at the same level.
Also, re max submission restraints, hard to see getting around testimony by Chauvin’s commander, and the the highest ranking Minneapolis officer both testifying that Chauvin was not justifed with the level, length and intensity of his restraint. As well as the location of his knee on Floyd’s neck. Flawed tactic takes it into manslaughter. Inability/refusal to adapt to the situation on the ground takes it into homicide.
Best to go with what the prosecuter is saying, Turley…, yes, it’s okay to believe your eyes in this case. Sidebar: do you feel proud that you’re being roped into this argument by Fox news?
EB
EB should sliver back to Russia–Putin is a murderous thug.
EB, you’re acting as though the defense has the burden of proof and not the other way around. You simply can’t refute the fact that the prosecution and the coroner are not on the same page. Your final comment reveals your true agenda, which is political.
No, I’m acting on the fact the prosecution is making a great case.
EB
My typos from speed typing notwithstanding.
EB
My oh my EB, you conveniently leave out the part about the lungs being three times their normal size and being filled with fluid. How much pressure would be applied to the heart by lungs that were three times their normal size. Raise the water pressure by 300% in the 75% clogged plumbing in your home and see what happens. As a side note, these facts were not developed by Fox News but the actual findings of the coroner. If you take a closer look you’ll find that Elvis Bug is a “believe the science” guy. Except when he doesn’t. A man who just does not think about the things he does not think about.
As I’ve said to you in a different thread, if you’re going to take the torturing Floyd through an overdose route Chauvin is in trouble. If Floyd died unexpainedly of natural causes a key component of that would not involve someone kneeling on his neck for nine minutes, three of which he was unconscious, a couple of which he showed visible signs of being dead. Add to that the, now, three MPD higher ups that say Chauvin was not following protocal pluse the attending calling the death as probable asphyiation. Hell, Chauvin would’ve failed a basic CPR class with his behavior, as a cop that behavior crossed the line into the realm of homicide. I suppose your unmitigated idiocy may serve you well in other areas of your life…, this isn’t one of them though.
EB
“Oddly, this is also sympotomatic of someone kneeling on your neck for a long time, upwards of 3 minutes “
The height of denialism and lack of attention. Floyd had the shortness of breath before the knee was on his neck. His Fentanyl level was enough to kill. His lungs were filled with fluid which is what is found in a Fentanyl overdose.
SM