{"id":6753,"date":"2021-04-20T18:32:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T22:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=6753"},"modified":"2021-04-20T19:00:08","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T23:00:08","slug":"thoughts-on-the-chauvin-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/thoughts-on-the-chauvin-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"THOUGHTS ON THE CHAUVIN VERDICT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The \u201cguilty on all counts\u201d verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd was probably a fait accompli. <\/em>The media had become something of a lynch mob. Before the jury returned their verdict, the President of the United States publicly prayed with Floyd\u2019s family for \u201ca just verdict,\u201d and it\u2019s understandable what verdict the family of the deceased was praying for.  Congresswoman Maxine Waters called for more confrontation in the streets<\/a> if Chauvin was not convicted. . Newspapers \u2013 in the hole for \u201cimpartial\u201d news, not the opinion pages \u2013 continually referred to Chauvin killing Floyd when in fact autopsy showed enough fentanyl to be fatal three times over, a very serious pre-existing cardiovascular condition that could have killed him by itself, and more\u2026but no artifacts of injury to neck, throat, or chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought reasonable doubt had been established in the course of trial\u2026but I wasn\u2019t on the jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will certainly be appealable issues.  There were people on that jury who had said on their questionnaires that they pretty much had already formed an opinion of guilt, but because they said they could set those opinions aside, they were allowed onto the jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change of venue from the city where it happened was denied, on the grounds that the national publicity had permeated every corner of Minnesota.  True enough\u2026but there are communities and jury pools in other parts of Minnesota where the jurors wouldn\u2019t have to worry that their own city would burn if they turned in a vote of Not Guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a volatile and highly politicized case such as this, I respectfully submit that the jury should have been sequestered the entire time, not just during deliberations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cspark of life\u201d rule in Minnesota law allowed the prosecution to introduce heart-rending testimony as to what a wonderful person Floyd was (and coming from a loved one, I\u2019m sure that was genuine), but Rule of Evidence 404(b) precluded the jury from hearing testimony from Floyd\u2019s female victim who was pregnant when he robbed her at gunpoint and went behind bars for it, and that definitely tilted the scales of justice off balance. Perhaps this case will make the Minnesota State Supreme Court rethink the \u201cspark of life\u201d testimony\/404(b) balance in such cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were some weaknesses in the defense strategy. Testimony suggesting carbon monoxide poisoning from the exhaust of the patrol car? I rolled my eyes at that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, I don\u2019t think the harsh criticism I\u2019m seeing of defense attorney Eric Nelson is warranted. He was David against Goliath, the sole attorney of record that the police union could afford, against no less than three attorneys at the prosecutors\u2019 table at any time and more behind the scenes backing them up, while Nelson\u2019s only assistance in court came from a fledgling lawyer who had just passed her bar exam and was acting as sort of an intern.\u00a0\u00a0I thought he did a particularly good job cross-examining the State\u2019s witnesses, and I think his necessarily long close was more professional than his prosecutorial counterpart\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the biggest mistake was Chauvin not taking the stand on his own behalf. As all my students have heard me say, when it comes down to \u201cwhy<\/em> did you do it as you did?\u201d only you, <\/em>the defendant, can truly answer.  Those answers were never put to Chauvin\u2019s jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m about out of space here, but we\u2019ll discuss this more in my next entry.  I am interested right now in your <\/em>commentary on the matter, and particularly the comments of my fellow denizens of the courts and the criminal justice system. For those who\u2019ve only followed the trial on mass media, I would urge you to go to www.lawofselfdefense.com<\/a> for Attorney Andrew Branca\u2019s much more balanced review of the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cguilty on all counts\u201d verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd was probably a fait accompli. The media had become something of a lynch mob. Before the jury returned their verdict, the President of the United States publicly prayed with Floyd\u2019s family for \u201ca just verdict,\u201d and it\u2019s understandable what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6757,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6753\/revisions\/6757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}