Minneapolis, United States:
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin mentioned Thursday that he would not testify at his murder trial for the death of George Floyd, as a policewoman facing charges for the killing of an additional Black American produced her initially court look.
Kim Potter, 48, charged with second-degree manslaughter for the death of Daunte Wright, was ordered in the course of a short Zoom hearing to seem ahead of a county judge on May 17.
Wright’s shooting in a Minneapolis suburb on Sunday — in the course of which Potter seems to have mistakenly fired her gun alternatively of her Taser — additional fueled tensions in the Minnesota city currently on edge amid Chauvin’s trial.
Both Chauvin and Potter are white when Floyd and Wright had been African Americans.
“Over and over again, they come up with justifications,” mentioned Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Wright household. “We’re done accepting the justifications, America.”
The prosecution and defense in Chauvin’s trial rested on Thursday immediately after the state named a final witness and Chauvin mentioned he would exercising his constitutional suitable against self-incrimination.
“I will invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege today,” Chauvin told Judge Peter Cahill.
“Is this your decision — not to testify?” the judge asked the former police officer, who was wearing a gray suit with a dark blue shirt and dark blue tie.
“It is, your honor,” Chauvin mentioned.
The 45-year-old Chauvin was recorded kneeling on the neck of the 46-year-old Floyd for more than nine minutes in the course of his May 25, 2020 arrest in Minneapolis for allegedly employing a counterfeit $20 bill.
A bystander video of the arrest went viral and sparked protests against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States and about the planet.
Cahill gave the nine-lady, 5-man jury a day off on Friday ahead of closing arguments Monday.
The judge reminded the jurors that they would be sequestered for their deliberations and told them they should really “plan for long and hope for short” when packing their bags.
– ‘Accountability’ –
Potter, who resigned from the police division of Brooklyn Center, a suburb of the Midwestern city of Minneapolis, immediately after Wright’s shooting in the course of a targeted traffic cease, spoke just a couple of words in the course of her Zoom court look.
She was asked by Judge Paul Scoggin if she was present in her attorney’s workplace. “Yes, I am,” mentioned Potter, who has been no cost on $one hundred,000 bail.
A 26-year police veteran, Potter faces a maximum of 10 years in jail if convicted of second-degree manslaughter.
Wright’s mother Katie Wright mentioned she desires “accountability, 100 percent, the highest accountability.
“But even then, when that takes place — if that even takes place — we’re nevertheless going to bury our son… So when individuals say ‘Justice,’ I just shake my head,” she said.
Minneapolis was rocked by demonstrations following Floyd’s death and there have been nightly protests in the city since Wright’s shooting, some violent.
And police were facing outrage in another Midwestern city as Chicago officials released video Thursday of an officer shooting a 13-year-old Latino boy dead last month.
The body camera footage, which Mayor Lori Lightfoot called “excruciating,” shows teenager Adam Toledo running from police before he is shot in the chest as he stops and raises his hands.
“It’s horrifying, traumatic, and an additional reminder of the police brutality epidemic we continue to face in America — and the urgent will need for police reform!!” Floyd and Wright family lawyer Crump tweeted about the case.
Carbon monoxide
At the Chauvin trial, prosecutors called a final witness on Thursday to rebut testimony by a medical expert for the defense who said Floyd’s death was due to underlying heart disease and the illegal drugs fentanyl and methamphetamine.
David Fowler, former chief medical examiner of the state of Maryland, said Thursday the handcuffed Floyd was held face down on the ground next to the exhaust pipe of a running police car, and that carbon monoxide poisoning was a potential additional factor in Floyd’s death.
Prosecutors called Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist who testified previously, back to the witness stand, where he said he did not see any evidence of carbon monoxide poisoning in Floyd’s blood.
Tobin and other medical experts called by the prosecution said Floyd’s death was caused by a “low level of oxygen” from Chauvin’s neck restraint and not due to drugs or pre-existing conditions.
Several police officers also testified that excessive force was used on Floyd and Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo said Chauvin had violated the department’s training policies and its “values.”
Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most really serious charge — second-degree murder.
A 19-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, Chauvin was fired from the force immediately after Floyd’s death.
Three other former police officers involved in Floyd’s arrest are to be attempted separately later this year.
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