ST. PAUL, Minnesota. The prosecution said three Minneapolis police officers only watched callously as their colleague Derek Chauvin slowly killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. According to defense lawyers, the officers trusted Mr. Chauvin, an experienced officer who was present at the scene, to do his duty and should be acquitted.
Dueling positions unveiled on Tuesday ended wrangling in a federal trial over Mr. Floyd’s death, and on Wednesday the jury will begin debating which of the three officers – Tou Tao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38, are guilty of violating Mr Floyd’s civil rights.
The jury heard from doctors, police and other witnesses after the trial started almost a month ago, and now they have to decide if any of the actions of the officers on May 25, 2020, for which they were quickly fired, fell to the level of a crime. Mr. Kueng and Mr. Lane, who were full officers in their first week on the job, helped restrain Mr. Floyd, while Mr. Tao held back a group of concerned bystanders. All three officers are accused of not providing medical attention to Mr. Floyd, and Mr. Kueng and Mr. Tao are also accused of not intervening to stop Mr. Chauvin.
The lawsuit mainly focused on the training of Minneapolis police officers and their duties to assist or prevent a fellow officer from using excessive force. The verdict may signal whether jurors are treating police work with more consideration — even when evaluating the actions of officers who were not primarily responsible for a person’s death.
Chauvin, 45, has been in detention since April, when he convicted of murder Mr Floyd. He pleaded guilty to federal charges Mr. Floyd’s civil rights violations in December. The other three officers also face state charges of aiding and abetting murder, and that trial is set for later this year.
In her closing remarks on Tuesday, Manda Sertich, the Minnesota federal prosecutor, tried to highlight how long Mr. Floyd suffered while three police officers failed to provide assistance. She also alleged that the officers deliberately stripped Mr. Floyd of his rights, implying that they knew what Mr. Chauvin was doing wrong. The jury must establish that the defendants’ actions were intentional in order to convict them.
By the time Mr Floyd made his last plea for air, all three officers had been unable to come to his aid for several minutes, Ms Sertich said.
According to Ms Surtich, Mr Tao “did nothing” for 4 minutes and 40 seconds while Mr Floyd called for help. At the same time, she said, Mr Kueng ignored Mr Floyd’s pleas as he crouched “shoulder to shoulder” with Mr Chauvin, never urging him to give up. And Mr. Lane, who was holding Mr. Floyd by the legs, decided “not to stop the horror unfolding right under his nose”, only once suggesting that Mr. Chauvin turn Mr. Floyd on his side, but “doing nothing for to George Floyd the medical care he knew he so desperately needed,” the prosecutor said.
Even when Mr Floyd said he couldn’t breathe for the 27th time, Ms Sertich said, the officers “were only halfway through their crime.”
The officers are being tried together, but each has their own lawyer, and the three lawyers made separate closing arguments for several hours Tuesday afternoon.
They submitted that their clients had succumbed to the judgment of Mr. Chauvin, the senior officer present at the scene; that their attention was occasionally diverted from Mr. Floyd’s deteriorating condition; and that keeping Mr Floyd was necessary because he took fentanyl and refused to get into the back seat of a police car after being accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill. The lawyers also criticized the prosecutors, with one stating that the prosecutors presented misleading arguments, while another suggested that they filed the case due to political pressure.
“Just because something has a tragic end doesn’t mean it’s a crime,” Robert Paul, Mr Tao’s lawyer, told jurors.
Earl Grey, Mr Lane’s lawyer, noted that his client asked Mr Chauvin if the police should turn Mr Floyd on his side and that he was not charged with non-intervention as a result. Mr Gray also said Mr Lane was quick to tell the paramedics that Mr Floyd was not responding after they arrived at the scene and that he was traveling with Mr Floyd in an ambulance.
Understand the civil rights lawsuit over the death of George Floyd
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Police culture on trial. That federal civil rights litigation three former officers for their role in murder of George Floyd focuses on a key issue in the American police force: the duty of officers to intervene in the affairs of their colleagues when they witness misconduct.
New focus. Since the murder of Mr Floyd nearly two years ago, all eyes have been on the officer who killed him. Derek Chauvin. While Mr. Chauvin was convicted of murder last spring at the state court, he was not the only officer present that day.
Who are the officers under investigation? Three officers are accused of willfully refusing to intervene against Mr. Chauvin and help Mr. Floyd. To Tao, a veteran officer who was Mr. Chauvin’s partner, held back a group of passers-by. J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, both rookies, helped capture Mr. Floyd.
What are the charges? The allegations concern whether the defendants were stripped Mr Floyd of his civil rights. All three officers are accused of failing to provide medical attention to Mr. Floyd, while Mr. Kueng and Mr. Tao are also accused of failing to intervene in Mr. Chauvin’s use of force.
“How can our government, the wonderful United States of America—freedom and all—blame someone who does this?” Mr Gray said, adding that it was “a little scary”.
Thomas Plunkett, Mr Kuang’s lawyer, said the crowd of bystanders had created an unusual and hostile situation, and he said the jury was the officers’ last defense against the “mob mentality” he believed was driving their prosecution.
The police responded to an emergency call. store clerk in South Minneapolis a report that Mr. Floyd used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
As officers handcuffed Mr Floyd to his stomach on the street, the teenager recorded a video of Mr Floyd, a black security guard who lost his job due to the coronavirus pandemic, begging for air under Mr Chauvin’s ruthless knee. The video prompted the Minneapolis police chief to quickly fire all four officers and sparked racial justice protests that led to millions of people on the streets and sidewalks of America. Mr Chauvin and Mr Lane are white Mr Tao – Hmong as well as Mr Kueng black.
Majority 18 jurors chosen to try the case “The 12 main jurors and six reserve jurors, who replaced the main jurors when necessary, were white, in part because jurors were drawn from all over Minnesota and not from the more diverse Twin Cities region.
Tim Arango and Jay Senter provided coverage from Saint Paul.