Well, George Parry and I were wrong
I decided to leave the original blog intact. You will see that my conclusion – that a jury would find Derek Chauvin guilty of murder – was wrong. I based my opinion on facts in the case, not the fact of the enormous pressure on jurors and the prosecutor to get guilty verdicts.
George Parry wrote a follow up to this article. He lays out the case for the overwhelming odds of Chauvin winning acquittal on murder charges. Not because of facts, but all the mitigating factors that rendered a fair trial impossible.
NOTE: I do not, nor can any clear-thinking person, condone Chauvin’s decision to pin Floyd to the ground and hold him there as he did. That, however, is different from causing his death.
When “Not Guilty” turns to rioting
This post raises questions about the eventual jury trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Get ready for “Not Guilty” and the riots to follow.
Facts versus frenzy
George Floyd died on May 25, 2020 while being taken into custody in Minneapolis. Immediate news reports said that Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s actions killed Floyd. Chauvin, along with three other officers – one Asian, one white and one brown – worked the scene. Three officers directed engaged in holding Floyd to the ground while he died. All four are headed to trial, together.
George Parry, a former federal and state prosecutor now living in Philadelphia, served for five years as the Chief of the Police Brutality/Misconduct Unit out of the Philly District Attorney’s Office. He knows a bad cop when he sees one, and he knows the standard of evidence required to execute such a judgment.
Parry wrote two well-researched articles in “The American Spectator” about how Chauvin’s defense team will argue their case. He showed how the evidence creates far more than reasonable doubt about a murder charge, but the recent release of a documentary seals Parry’s argument. The facts make a conviction for murder unlikely. Parry meticulously describes how Chauvin’s defense will show Floyd died from the effects of fentanyl and a cocktail of other drugs.
Headlines preached “racism”
News spread like wildfire of Floyd’s death at the hands of a white cop—clearly a demonstration of racism at its worst, so it seemed. Demonstrations in the Twin Cities quickly turned to riots. Riots spread like the wildfires of California, reaching across the country and the world. Reporters of all persuasions quickly proclaimed Derek Chauvin had “murdered” (some may have said “killed”) Floyd. “8 minutes and 46 seconds” entered the racism lexicon, seemingly offering proof. The video seemed compelling evidence.
Not only reporters, but politicians across the political spectrum joined the drumbeat. You heard it from President Trump and Vice President Pence, and you heard it from former VP Biden and Senator Harris. Everyone, it seems, has decided that Derek Chauvin murdered, or at least killed George Floyd.
Floyd became an icon upon which a new, militant form of enforcing equality has been and continues to be built. Will it crash to the ground? Will forensic facts destroy the narrative?
The initial autopsy report, which I read, specifically suggested a different cause of death, though the medical examiner quickly amended his report. Then a few days later, Floyd’s toxicology report came back, and it slowly began to peel back the layers of the primary cause of his death; what he had done to himself. “I can’t breathe,” makes more sense with the toxicology report in hand.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman quickly handed off prosecution of the police officers to Minnesota’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison whose son, Jeremiah, is a Minneapolis City Council member. Along with his fellow City Council members, Jeremiah Ellison condemned the police and called for defunding them. This echoed across the United States and the world. It may have caused Democrats to lose Congressional seats, but it’s not the political fallout that is important. It’s what comes next.
For all who have already found Chauvin and his fellow police officers guilty in the court of public opinion, a rude and most likely violent awakening waits. Be prepared for the next round of riots because if “justice is blind,” a “not guilty” plea awaits a dramatic arrival on stage.
Just the facts
On October 7, 2020, “The American Spectator” published Parry’s latest article about the case. In it, Parry doubled down on his claim that Chauvin cannot be guilty of murder, adding for proof a documentary assembled by “Fleming B. (“Tex”) Fuller, who has produced, directed, and written a number of outstanding documentaries.”[i] The video evidence Fuller assembled from several contemporaneous sources, might change your mind when you watch it—it is extremely compelling.
At many points in the documentary, salient parts of which will be played repeatedly by both the prosecution and the defense during the trial, you will see and hear Floyd’s self-admitted intoxication, demands and behaviors.
The video will be played in slow motion in the courtroom. It clearly shows that Chauvin did not apply undue pressure across Floyd’s neck to pin him to the ground. You will see how Chauvin’s leg rose up easily each time Floyd’s chest expanded, and then settled down again. Combined with the toxicology results, the video and toxicology report are enough to void a murder conviction. Other charges might stick, but murder cannot be proven, if the jury considers facts in the case.
Like you, I want to see the end to racism. And I want justice done in this case and all cases where race may play a role. I cannot help but think, however, that violence resulting from any decision reached by the Chauvin jury is predictable. What are elected officials doing today to prepare to protect lives and property from the riots that will surely follow, no matter who serves as President.
Recently I inquired of folks in the know, whether Minnesota’s Governor Walz, and the two Twin Cities’ mayors Jacob Frey and Melvin Carter, are already at work formulating plans to handle the demonstrations and riots that will result if a jury arrives at a not-guilty decision. I have been assured these plans are well underway, and include federal, state and local entities and officials.
If elected officials are not planning for it now, they had better get started. It is just as likely that others, bent on mayhem and destruction, are also planning their response.
NOTE: I wrote a 736-page tome—Caged Bird—about Pastor Thomas P. Bird of Emporia, Kansas, who sat in a prison cell for nearly 20 years, convicted by a jury of the 1983 murder of his wife. Community outrage overwhelmed facts in that case, but nobody rioted; they cheered and leered and chortled. The people decided that the Pastor got his just deserves, only the jury never rendered justice, sending an innocent man to prison.
[i] Parry. “The George Floyd Documentary | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.” The American Spectator | USA News and Politics. Accessed October 10, 2020. https://spectator.org/george-floyd-documentary/.
