Prosecutors in closing argument at Chauvin murder trial
Monday – In the closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin murder trial, a prosecutor told jurors to “believe your eyes” as he replayed the video of George Floyd’s death last May beneath the knee of the former police officer.
The prosecutor with the Minnesota attorney general’s office, Steve Schleicher, over and over again, repeated the phrase: “Nine minutes and 29 seconds,” the length of time Chauvin was captured on video on May 25, 2020, with his knee pressed into the dying Floyd’s neck.
The jury’s verdict, which will be seen as a reckoning in the US policing of Black people, Schleicher emphasized the weighing the guilt of only one man who was responsible for the death of another.
“This is not a prosecution of the police,” Schleicher told jurors. “George Floyd was not a threat to anyone,” Schleicher said. “Facing George Floyd that day that did not require one ounce of courage, and none was shown on that day, no courage was required. All that was required was a little compassion and none was shown on that day.”
Chauvin, a white 45-year-old male, is accused of killing 46-year-old Geroge Floyd, a black man after he pushed his knee into the neck of the handcuffed man for more than nine minutes outside a grocery store. Floyd was suspected by the owner as having used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges.
