'My words don't matter': Maxine Waters brushes off Chauvin judge who warned that her calls for BLM protests to be 'more confrontational' could overturn whole case after defense accused her of intimidating jury
Congresswoman Maxine Waters denied on Monday interfering in the trial of Derek Chauvin as the jury retired, claiming that the judge overseeing the former policeman's case said her provocative words 'don't matter' - despite his condemning her actions in court as 'abhorrent'.
Waters, a Democrat representing California, sparked outrage by travelling to Minneapolis on Saturday and urging protesters to 'get more confrontational' if Chauvin was acquitted.
Her remarks, on the eve of the jury retiring to consider its verdict, were widely condemned and may, it emerged on Monday, have handed Chauvin's defense grounds for appeal and the turning over of any guilty verdict.
Yet Waters, 82, defiantly insisted on Monday afternoon that she stood by her words.
'The judge says my words don't matter,' she told CNN.
When pressed on the judge stating that her remarks could be grounds for appeal, she replied: 'Oh no, no they didn't.'
She insisted she was entirely justified in her call to action, saying: 'The whole Civil Rights movement is confrontational.'
Earlier on Monday Waters' comments were seized upon by Chauvin's legal team, and criticized by the judge.
Speaking after the jury was sent out on Monday afternoon, Chauvin's attorney Eric Nelson once again made a bid to have the case against his client thrown out on grounds that there was no way the jury could be untainted by the excessive publicity surrounding the case.
'Now that we have US representatives threatening acts of violence in relation to this trial it's frankly mind-blowing,' Nelson said.
Taking it into consideration Judge Peter Cahill said: 'I grant that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned.'
Judge Cahill denied Nelson's move for a mistrial but he said: 'I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case. They should respect a co-equal branch of government.'
He said that failure to do so was 'abhorrent', but added: 'I don't think it's given additional material with which to prejudice the jury.
'A congresswoman's opinion really doesn't matter a whole lot.'
Waters (D - California) had joined protesters in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on Saturday night for a demonstration over the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man shot dead by a white police officer during a traffic stop on April 11.
Waters told the protesters that she will fight for justice on their behalf and urged them to 'to get more confrontational' - just one day after protests descended into violence.
'I hope we get a verdict that says guilty, guilty, guilty,' she said of the Chauvin trial. 'And if we don't, we cannot go away. We've got to stay on the street. We get more active, we've got to get more confrontational. We've got to make sure that they know that we mean business.'
Derek Chauvin's defense attorney Eric Nelson called for a mistrial after the jury retired on Monday, citing comments California Congresswoman Maxine Waters (left) made about the case during a protest on Saturday. Judge Peter Cahill (right) condemned Waters' remarks as 'abhorrent' before stating that he would not declare a mistrial
Derek Chauvin is pictured in court on Monday as his attorney unsuccessfully lobbied for a mistrial
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell likewise went after Waters on Monday, telling colleagues: 'It's harder to imagine anything more inappropriate than a member of Congress flying in from California to inform local leaders - not so subtly - that this defendant had better be found guilty or else there will be big trouble in the streets.'
The Kentucky Republican said that Waters' demand for a guilty verdict was 'like somebody window-shopping or ordering off a menu.'
'Every single American deserves a fair trial. This is sacred. You do not balance the scales of justice by trying to tip them,' McConnell said.
The top Senate Republican noted that through much of the country's 'quest for civil rights and equal justice has been the fight to get rid of extra-judicial violence, to get rid of rigged trials where the outcome was molded by public sentiment or angry mob.'
'It is beyond the pale for a sitting member of the United States Congress to look at what happened last summer and imply there should be some kind of a sequel if a legal case does not unfold as she thinks it should,' he said.
Kevin McCarthy (left) has claimed that up to 15 Democrats could vote for his motion to censure California Representative Maxine Waters (right) after she told Black Lives Matters protesters to 'get more confrontational' in Minneapolis on Saturday night
McCarthy's remarks Monday night came just hours after he claimed in a tweet that Waters 'broke the law by violating curfew and then incited violence' while in Minneapolis over the weekend
McCarthy's move could get Waters removed from her committee assignments but, given Democratic control of the House, it will go nowhere if Democrats stick together
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy took his criticism even further - saying that he is introducing a motion to censure Waters and claimed that up to 15 Democrats could vote for his motion.
During an interview with on Fox News Primetime, McCarthy said the congresswoman 'believes there is value in violence'.
'And now what she has said has even put doubt into a jury,' McCarthy said, referring to the George Floyd jury that started deliberations on Monday in the murder trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin.
'You had a judge announce that it was wrong. I think this takes action especially when she has a pattern of this behavior,' McCarthy continued.
He was referring to Waters' 2018 remarks when she told Californians to 'get in the face' of Trump administration staffers if they see them in public.
McCarthy said he believes there are 'probably 10 to 15' Democrats who would vote for censure.
'It will all come down to the pressure of what Democrats will put on them to just try to vote to table it - not even to have the discussion,' he added.
McCarthy's remarks Monday night came just hours after he claimed in a tweet that Waters 'broke the law by violating curfew and then incited violence' while in Minneapolis over the weekend.
He then accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of 'ignoring Waters’ behavior,' which he said prompted him to introduce 'a resolution to censure Rep. Waters for these dangerous comments'.
Meanwhile House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Capitol Hill reporters Monday that Waters didn't need to apologize as her comments didn't incite violence, despite calls from Republicans to have Waters punished for her remarks.
And White House press secretary Jen Psaki refused to condemn Waters' comments, telling reporters: 'Well, I can speak to the president's view. He has been very clear that he recognizes the issue of police violence against people of color, communities of color is one of great anguish and it's exhausting and quite emotional at times.'
Waters defended herself on Monday by saying that Republicans were trying to 'send a message to all of the white supremacists' by criticizing her call for Black Lives Matter to 'get more confrontational' if Chauvin is found not guilty.
Speaking to the Grio, Waters said: 'I am nonviolent. Republicans will jump on any word, any line and try to make it fit their message and their cause for denouncing us and denying us, basically calling us violent.
'Any time they see an opportunity to seize on a word, so they do it and they send a message to the white supremacists, the KKK, the Oath Keepers, the [Proud] Boys and all of that.'
She also accused Republicans of using the tactic to raise money off the Democrats' backs.
Walters said she was 'not worried that they're going to continue to distort what I say.'
'This is who they are and this is how they act,' she added. 'And I'm not going to be bulled by them.'
Cahill's condemnation of Waters' comments came after the state of Minnesota concluded its murder case against Chauvin on Monday by telling the jury: 'The reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr Chauvin's heart was too small.'
The jury was then dismissed for deliberation, where they will consider three charges against Chauvin: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
After the jury stepped out Nelson called for a mistrial over prosecutor Jerry Blackwell's characterization of the defense's case as 'nonsense' and a 'story' - as well as the possibility that media attention could bias the jury.
Judge Cahill said he was not making any findings as to whether Blackwell's comments constituted prosecutorial misconduct that could result in a mistrial but said that he had dealt with all of Nelson's specific objections as he had made them.
As for the media attention, Cahill said he is hopeful that the jurors have heeded his warning against looking at any news coverage of the case before officially denying the mistrial motion.
Outside the court more than 2,000 National Guard members and 1,100 law enforcement officials stood watch over Minneapolis as the city braces for potential unrest over the verdict.
In his closing statement, Nelson insisted that Chauvin acted as any reasonable officer would when he pinned Floyd to the pavement while underlining the handcuffed black man's 'active resistance' to arrest.
Nelson urged the jury to examine all of the evidence presented over three weeks of testimony and come to the conclusion that the state did not meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Floyd's death was a direct result of Chauvin's actions on May 25, 2020.
'This was an authorized use of force - as unattractive as that may be,' Nelson said, noting that none of the state's use-of-force experts or police officials could agree on a specific point where Chauvin's actions became unreasonable.
He also emphasized the 'hostile' reactions of the crowd that gathered to watch Floyd's arrest and yelled out for the officers to get off of him - asserting that the chaos was distracting for Chauvin.
Nelson dragged out his at times rambling closing for more than two hours before Judge Peter Cahill interrupted him and called for a lunch break at 2.10pm local time.
When he returned to conclude his statement, Nelson ripped into prosecutors for discounting Floyd's underlying health issues and drug use when arguing that Floyd's primary cause of death was asphyxia during Chauvin's restraint.
'When you take into consideration the presumption of innocence and proof beyond a reason doubt. I would submit to you that it is nonsense to suggest that none of these other factors had any role. That is not reasonable,' Nelson said.
'When you conclude your analysis of the evidence, the entirety of the evidence, when you review the law as written, all within a thorough honest analysis, the state has failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. And therefore Mr Chauvin should be found not guilty of all counts.'
Defense attorney Eric Nelson is seen delivering his closing statement on Monday, where he urged the jury to examine all of the evidence presented over three weeks of testimony and come to the conclusion that the state did not meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Floyd's death was a direct result of Chauvin's actions on May 25, 2020
Nelson underlined Floyd's active resistance to arrest by playing footage from Chauvin's body camera for the jury
Members of the National Guard and police officers stand guard in Minneapolis ahead of a Chauvin verdict
High school students from across Minneapolis participated in a statewide walkout on Monday to stand in solidarity against racial injustice and honor the lives of George Floyd and Daunte Wright
Minneapolis was transformed into a fortress over the weekend as city officials, business owners and residents braced for unrest that could follow the verdict in Chauvin's case.
More than 3,000 members of the National Guard are currently stationed in the city in addition to 1,100 officers from public safety agencies across the state as part of what has been termed Operation Safety Net.
The operation, which is rumored to have cost the city more than $1million, moved into its third stage on Monday with the start of jury deliberation.
Nelson began his closing statement by reminding the jury that the Chauvin 'doesn't have to play catch up', he starts with presumption of innocence.
For the first time in the case, Chauvin set down the pen with which he has scribbled throughout and looked at the screen on which Nelson displayed definitions of standards of doubt, stretching out his arms and calling for them to consider the scales of justice, reasonably balanced.
Civil cases may use a 'preponderance of evidence' as a standard of proof he told them - a grain of sand that could, he suggested, tip the scales.
The next level is 'clear and convincing evidence'. This is the standard, Nelson told the jury, that the state used to, 'take away your children.'
The highest standard is proof 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. Nelson explained: 'Essentially what the state has to convince you is that the evidence in this case completely eliminates any reasonable doubt – or in other words leaving only unreasonable doubt, capricious, unpredictable, fanciful – space aliens flew in and inhabited the body of Derek Chauvin, that's fanciful.'
Nelson asked the jury to be 'intellectually honest' and cast his own statements accordingly.
Most notably, Nelson took a quick swipe at the state's rebuttal of defense medical expert Dr David Fowler's contention that carbon monoxide may have played a part in Floyd's death.
Dr Tobin came in and told the jury, he said, that there could not have been any carbon monoxide poisoning because his oxygen saturation levels at hospital were 98 percent.
Nelson pointed out: 'I could get up in front of you and argue you to that we know this wasn't asphyxiation because George Floyd had a 98 percent oxygen level but that's not intellectually honest.
'It doesn't stack up against the rest of the evidence because of what we know. We heard the testimony of paramedic Seth Bravinder and [ER physician] Dr Langenfeld.
'They came in and said they began resuscitation efforts, they introduced oxygen they're manually breathing for him. They're re-oxygenating his blood.
'So, when you're looking at the evidence you have to compare it to all of the of the evidence.'
If they are missing any single element – even one single element - then, Nelson said, the verdict has to be not guilty. 'I submit to you that the state has failed to meet its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt,' he said.
Nelson focused in on the definition of objectively reasonably use of force because, in his words, 'No crime is committed if the police officer's actions were reasonable.'
'You must look at those facts which a reasonable officer in the same situation would have known at the precise moment the officer acted with force,' he said.
'You must decide if the officer's actions were reasonable in light of the totality of the facts and circumstance in front of the officer and without regard to the officer's own state of mind, intention or motivations.'
As he did in his opening Nelson cast his net wide when it came to all of the things, he said, an objectively reasonable officer would have been aware of on the day of Floyd's death – the high crime area, the fact that it was high density and urban, the proximity of a hospital, the behavior of the suspect and the unpredictability of humans.
A reasonable officer, he said, will take into consideration his immediate surroundings and who he's on the scene with. 'Are these veteran officers, are they rookie officers?' Nelson asked.
'Throughout the course of this trial the state has focused you on nine minutes 29 seconds. The proper analysis is to take those nine minutes 29 seconds and put them in the context of what would a reasonable officer know.'
Nelson took the jury through the events of the day; from that moment of the first call to Cup Foods and dispatcher Jenna Scurry's decision to call for back-up.
Chauvin and Tou Thao headed to the scene, knowing that there was some sort of disturbance with which the two officers already there - J Alexander Keung and Thomas Lane - were struggling.
Nelson showed footage from Lane's body-worn camera of the officers trying to wrangle Floyd into the back of the squad car.
'Active aggression or active resistance?' he asked. 'Let's call it active resistance.'
This, Nelson said, was the mental starting point and context upon which Chauvin drew in that moment.
Nelson repeatedly stated the notion of 'a reasonable police officer', each time pushing the connection between the concept and his own client. Chauvin, in Nelson's scenario, was that 'reasonable officer' - a characterization that brought in its wake the assumption that the decisions he was making were reasonable.
'He walks onto a scene he's sees active resistance occurring, possibly active aggression. He is not intervening at that time but what are his options?' Nelson asked.
'Distraction techniques, controlled take down, conscious neck restraints – he has, per his training, these techniques at his disposal.'
Chauvin is facing three charges in connection with George Floyd's death on May 25: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter
Chauvin did not step in immediately but instead observed, Nelson said before describing what he saw through the perspective of a reasonable officer.
A reasonable police officer, Nelson said, would observe the white foam around Floyd's mouth. He would consider the information that this person was possibly on something.
A reasonable person would look at the size of a person and assess his size in relation to his own size. A reasonable officer would know that there are two rookies putting Floyd in the car.
A reasonable officer would hear what a suspect was saying. 'I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy. I'm claustrophobic,' and he's going to compare those words with the actions of the individual.
A reasonable officer, Nelson said, would ask himself, as per training, whether a person is purposefully trying to thwart attempts to take into custody or are they simply unable to comply.
A reasonable officer would conclude that the amount of force being used by Keung and Lane was not enough to overpower Floyd's resistance to getting into the car.
Nelson quoted the state's own use of force expert, LAPD Sergeant Jody Stiger who had observed the 'futility' of the officers' attempts to get Floyd into the car.
The struggle was intense, Nelson reminded – so intense that it knocked the body-worn camera and badge from Chauvin's shirt.
Once again the jury saw the milestone camera footage of the scene – the footage that prompted dispatcher Jenna Scurry to report concerns at what she had witnessed to the supervising sergeant.
Nelson stopped the video at the moment Floyd was put to the ground and he reminded the jury that there was 'not a single use of force expert [and] not a single police officer [who]said that anything up to this point was unlawful or unreasonable.
'It was reasonable to put him in the squad car, it was reasonable the efforts that they took to restrain him. It's the point at which Mr Floyd is brought to the crowd that there comes dispute.'
![Nelson stopped the video at the moment Floyd was put to the ground and he reminded the jury that there was ¿not a single use of force expert [and] not a single police officer [who]said that anything up to this point was unlawful or unreasonable'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/04/20/00/41957178-0-Nelson_stopped_the_video_at_the_moment_Floyd_was_put_to_the_grou-a-29_1618876447646.jpg)
Nelson stopped the video at the moment Floyd was put to the ground and he reminded the jury that there was 'not a single use of force expert [and] not a single police officer [who]said that anything up to this point was unlawful or unreasonable'
Nelson presented several graphics like the one above to show that Chauvin adhered to his police training
Nelson argued that this too was reasonable and in line with training – a move aimed at protecting both the officers and the suspect.
He accused the state of trying to 'reframe the issue of what a reasonable police officer would do' by extracting 9 minutes 29 seconds from all that went before.
In fact 16 minutes and 59 seconds had gone before – all of which, Nelson said, a reasonable officer would consider.
'A reasonable police officer would know about those previous 17 minutes, he would know about the struggle, he would consider the suspects reaction to the previous use of force.
'And a reasonable police officer would consider using an additional force to overcome the subject's resistance.'
Nelson told the court: 'I have thought a lot about the difference between perspective and perception. Perspective is the angle at which you see something, perception is how you interpret what it is that you see.
'I've thought about this a lot because it's not the normal set up for a jury trial. I cannot see four of the jurors. They probably can't see me either. Several of the jurors I have a very good view of, four of them I do not, others it's obstructed.
'Things can affect your perspective. But your perception is how you interpret what you see and that's our life, our experiences the things that make us what we are.'
As far as the jury is concerned, Nelson said: 'Ultimately the court will instruct you on how to deal with these biases. The court's final instructions will guide you to try to recognize your biases, what we bring to the table and analyze the evidence from the perspective of the incident itself.'
The witnesses on the scene did not have the benefit of such reflection or instruction, Nelson said. They brought their own biases to the table and each impacted on what they believed they saw and how they reacted to it.
Nelson spoke of Charles McMillan, who urged Floyd to get in the car and left the scene wishing Chauvin to 'get home safe.'
He spoke of Darnella Frazier, the 17-year-old who filmed the incident – but did not even know officers Lane and Keung were there.
And Donald Williams, the MMA fighter who accused Chauvin of putting Floyd in a blood choke - but both carotid articles were never blocked, Nelson told the court. 'This was not a choke hold.'
Speaking of Williams Nelson said: 'He was upset and that's okay because his perception affected what he was seeing.'
Similarly, he suggested that off-duty fire-fighter Genevieve Hansen was almost overwhelmed by her perceptions.
Nelson pointed out that she admitted the crowd distracted her from focusing on the officers, she interpreted fluid on the ground as Floyd's urine and assumed the blood on his face was from the ground.
When told in court that EMS had been called five minutes before she arrived she flat out refused to believe what was, in fact, a verifiable truth.
'What she observed was not consistent with the actual evidence,' Nelson said.
Meanwhile the officers on the scene were, he said, all aware that they were being filmed and Chauvin was making his assessment of the situation minute by minute attempting to keep control of both Floyd and the crowd which, Nelson said, he would have recognized was in crisis.
According to Nelson the most critical moment in the case came at 8.25.16pm. At that moment three things happened: Floyd took his last breath, Chauvin pulled his mace and threatened the crowd with it and Hansen entered the scene walking up behind the officers and startling him.
All of these events happened at once and influenced Chauvin's perception he said.
All of these things conspired to form Chauvin's perception of threat and, referencing the testimony of Medical Support Coordinator Nicole MacKenzie, created a situation in which it was more easy to miss something with Floyd.
Nelson pointed out that paramedics did a 'load and go' after assessing the crowd as 'unfriendly'.
He listed all of officers who testified about Chauvin's use of force, reeling off their names and stating that they all came to different conclusions as to when use of force became unnecessary.
Nelson said that a witness he found particularly interesting was Lieutenant Johnny Mercil as he was Chauvin's actual use of force trainer so, Nelson said, 'the best glimpse we're going to get into the training of a Minneapolis police officer'.
'He corrected the state at times,' Nelson said of Mercil. 'He said the knee on the neck is not an unauthorized move and can be utilized. He said it can be there for an extended period of time [and that] once a person is handcuffed people can continue to thrash around and be a danger to themselves and others.
Nelson sought to paint witnesses to Floyd's fatal arrest - as seen in the body camera footage above - as 'biased'
Nelson reminded the jury that Mercil had testified about ground defense and using weight to control a suspect and how he said that there were no strict techniques, that he personally trains officers to put a knee over the shoulder, up to the base of the neck and described it as routinely used.
Mercil, Nelson said, recognized the concept of 'awful but lawful'. And admitted that there are circumstances under which an assessment had to be made as to whether or not it was worth the risk to handcuff a person and administer medical aid.
And he recognized the human element – the impact of use of force on the officer doing it.
'You have to take into account that officers are human beings capable of making mistakes,' he said. 'In this case the totality of the circumstances as known to a reasonable officer in the precise moment the force was used demonstrate this was an authorized use of force, as unattractive as it may be and this is reasonable doubt.'
In a moment of marked emotion amid a clinical assessment of all that had occurred, Nelson said: 'There is absolutely no evidence that officer Chauvin purposefully applied unlawful force.
'Officer Chauvin did not purposefully use unlawful force. These are officers doing their job in a highly stressful situation according to their training according to the Minneapolis police department. It's tragic. It's tragic.'
Turning to cause of death, Nelson once again apologized for being long-winded but said that there was an important sentence that the state had not read to the jury.
Reading the instruction handed to the jury earlier, Nelson emphasized the key qualification that the state had omitted: 'The defendant is criminally liable for all the consequences of his actions that occur in the ordinary and natural course of events, including those consequences brought about by one or more intervening causes if such intervening causes were the natural result of the defendant's acts.'
The reason the state was seeking to convince the jury that asphyxia was the sole cause of Floyd's death was, Nelson said, because none of the other contributing factors – heart disease, hypertension, excited delirium, fentanyl and amphetamine ingestion - were natural consequences of Chauvin's actions. Instead, they were consequences of Floyd's own.
He said: 'The state [has] to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that there pre-existing issues did not contribute to Mr Floyd's death.
'That is why the state has brought in expert after expert after expert to testify that the single cause of death was asphyxiation.'
Viewed as a whole, according to Nelson, testimony from the state's experts witnesses 'flies in the face of common sense', especially when set against Dr Andrew Baker's findings.
The Chief Medical Examiner said there was no evidence of asphyxia at autopsy. Nelson gave as examples that there were no fine bruises he would expect to see.
There were no injuries to the structures of Floyd's neck and when he finally did review the video which he had avoided watching ahead of the autopsy so that he would not bias himself, he saw nothing about the placement of Chauvin's knee to change his opinion.
And all of the other physical defects he found Nelson said – the enlarged heart, the narrowed arteries, the paraganglioma – were the findings relied upon by all other experts who, he suggested, willfully ignored things that did not fit the narrative of asphyxia.
Dr Baker found the manner of death was homicide but in a medical not criminal sense. In his official finding he wrote, 'Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression'
Dr Baker explained that he used the word 'complicating' to mean, 'an intervention occurred and there was an untoward outcome on the heels of that intervention.'
He also told the court that if he wrote something on the death certificate he did so for the simple reason that it played a role in the death.
He added arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication and recent use of amphetamine.'
Nelson said, 'Apparently the state did not like Dr Baker's findings. His findings didn't support the notion that what you see is what you should believe.'
Nelson tackled some of Dr Martin Tobin's most emotive testimony, that he termed the 'finger and knuckle testimony,' the doctor's view that Floyd used both to push himself up so that he could breathe.
According to Nelson this testimony falls apart when viewed through the prism of the facts and detached from the doctor's own bias.
The time stamp on the images used to highlight the theory shows that Floyd was actually in the side recovery position at the time – just 15 minutes into his restraint.
He would continue to breathe for another five minutes and 51 seconds.
Nelson said, 'This illustrates how you can take a nanosecond of time in this address, have this testimony that he's pushing his body up to try to breathe, but when you look at the evidence compared to the rest of the evidence what do you really see?
'You see a person on his side being held in the side recovery position, his fingers and knuckles occasionally touching the ground and tire.'
Nelson warned the jury, 'You cannot take a single isolated frame and reach any conclusions.'
Again and again Nelson returned to his theme – that nothing in this case could be viewed in isolation but that instead everything must be placed in the context of the totality of circumstances.
He urged the jury, 'Put the evidence in its proper context.'
Cause of death, Nelson told them, 'is a multifactorial process.'
Nelson said it was 'a preposterous notion' that the amount of fentanyl in Floyd's system did not play some part in his death as he showed the jury the photo above of pills found in the console of Floyd's car
The history of Floyd's use of illegal substances was significant, Nelson said and not a character attack. IT provided insight on how his body might react to opioid use within the context of a law enforcement encounter.
Nelson reminded the jurors that Floyd's girlfriend Courtney Ross had admitted that both struggled with opioid addiction.
He remined them of the prior arrest on May 6, 2019 when Floyd had a remarkably similar encounter with police that resulted in his blood pressure skyrocket to 216 to 160.
He reminded them of Ross's testimony that Floyd had suffered an accidental overdose and complained that his 'whole body hurt' at the time.
He reminded them of the 'knock off' pills purchased by Floyd from his friend Morries Hall and how they made Ross feel as if she was going to die when she took them.
Hall, Nelson pointed out, was with Floyd on May 25, 2020.
He told them about store clerk Christopher Martin's observation that Floyd was high and Shawanda Hill's testimony that he fell asleep back in the car and they couldn't keep him awake.
Nelson said it was 'a preposterous notion' that the amount of fentanyl in Floyd's system did not play some part in his death.
Continuing his lengthy closing after a brief lunch break, Nelson told the jury that the state was asking them to simply ignore 'significant medical issues' when they offered up asphyxia as the sole cause of Floyd's death.
'The failure of the state's experts to acknowledge any possibility that any of these factors in any way contributed defies medical silence and it defies common sense and reason,' he said.
Applying common sense and reason to the timeline of Floyd's last verbalizations, Nelson told the court that it was consistent with the 'sudden cardiac arrhythmia' and not 'the long prognosis of hypoxia', or low oxygen.
Nelson also cleared up an aspersion cast on Dr Fowler's evidence during cross examination when Jerry Blackwell challenged the doctor that he didn't even know if the squad car was running, as he knocked down Foster's assertion that carbon monoxide from the tail pipe may have contributed to Floyd's death.
Today Nelson said: 'We know it was running' and pointed to officer Lane's body-camera footage, which showed he never turned off the car when arriving at the scene.
Nelson pondered what would have happened if the paramedics had treated on the scene or gone straight to the hospital rather than drive a few blocks away. Might Floyd have been revived?
His point was, he said, 'Human beings make decisions in highly stressful situations that they believe to be right in the very moment that it is occurring. There's lots of what ifs? What could have happened? What should have happened? Lots of them in lots of regards.
'But we have to analyze this case from the perspective of a reasonable police officer in the precise moment of use of force.
'We have to look at cause of death. Did Mr Floyd die of asphyxia or were there other contributory factors that were not the natural consequence of Mr Chauvin's action?
'The drug ingestion, the diseased heart, the hypertension – all of these things existed before Mr Chauvin arrived.'
'The struggle,' he said, 'What role did the struggle play? We know in a prior incident Mr Floyd's heart was beating at 219 over 160. He didn't die that day.'
Wrapping up closing statement that had taken close to three hours, Nelson once again asserted that the state had failed to prove Chauvin guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and thus the jury should not find him guilty on any charge.
Trial attorney Jerry Blackwell delivered the state's rebuttal
Trial attorney Jerry Blackwell then stood to deliver the state's rebuttal. He told the jury that while they had heard 45 witness in all, there was a 46th – one that spoke to them before the trial, during it and would continue to speak to them in the deliberations room: common sense.
For all the issues brought up in closing statements Blackwell told the jury, 'the case is so simple a child could understand it'.
In fact, a child had, he said referencing nine-year-old witness Judea who had said that she thought a remedy might have been to 'get off of him'.
Blackwell painted Nelson's closing summary as a 'story' because 'it's either completely not true or the facts have been altered in order to make a point to you, which makes it a story.
'You've got to reach a verdict – verdict's a Latin word for truth. You're not reaching a story.'
Picking up on Nelson's technique of repeatedly casting Chauvin in the role of 'a reasonable officer', Blackwell said: 'Reasonable officer is not a magic word that you apply to Mr Chauvin and then he becomes one.
'The whole narrative cut off before we got to the point that Mr Floyd was not moving, not conscious, did not have a pulse and that Mr Chauvin is still on top of him when the EMTs showed up. How is that reasonable?'
With characteristic savagery Blackwell dismantled Nelson's assertion that Floyd died from causes other than Chauvin's actions.
'The notion that Mr Floyd dying was just coincidental, he just happened to die in the same time and same place of factors unrelated to what Mr Chauvin was doing – that's a story ladies and gentlemen and defies common sense,' Blackwell said.
Floyd had lived 17,026 days, Blackwell said, many with all of the underlying problems that Nelson flagged up, he had survived everything but his encounter with Chauvin.
Where Nelson had suggested that the state's expert witnesses differed in their opinions, Blackwell said they were united in one key fact: 'There was a use of force that set a number of things in motion for Mr Floyd that culminated in his death.'
He reminded them that Dr Tobin had said that no human being could have survived the restrained and neck compression to which Floyd was subjected. 'We are only required to show you that Mr Chauvin's conduct was a substantial cause in Mr Floyd's death,' Blackwell said.
And, however their experts may have differed in the precise mechanisms involved, he said they all agreed that Floyd's death stemmed back to the subdual, restraint and neck compression.
He rejected the suggestion that there are two sides to every story – a premise on which Nelson has repeatedly fallen back.
The court is not about 'stories', Blackwell said, 'What we're about here is getting to the truth.'
In a similar vein he said that the police badge which Chauvin wore was 'not a license to abuse the public, to not follow procedures'. There are no two sides to that, he said, 'that's simply wrong and the only sides to that are the 'w' and the 'g' [of wrong].'
Chauvin 'had all the power', that day, Blackwell said – 'He had a gun, he had mace, he had back up.'
And the crowd that he was facing, Blackwell said, consisted of three high school juniors, a second-grader, a senior taking her cousin to get candy, Donald Williams the MMA fighter who wanted to save Floyd's life, Charles McMillan – 'the mayor' of the neighborhood and Genevieve Hansen.
This 'bouquet of humanity', all of different ages, races and genders did not present any threat, Blackwell said, 'They came together, they saw a human being they did not know suffering and they wanted to intervene.'
Had they wanted to take the law into their own hands, Blackwell told the court, they could have removed Chauvin but they respected the badge.
As he repeatedly characterized all that the defense had said about the crowd and events of that day as 'a story' Nelson objected in a move that was sustained by the judge who told Blackwell to move on from the use of the word.
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