From Legal Insurrection:
Prosecution visibly shaken after cross-examination of MPD force & medical experts
Today was a terrible, horrible no good, very bad day for the prosecution, to a degree that I haven’t seen since the trial of George Zimmerman.
If you have no more than an hour to watch the video of today’s proceedings, then I urge you to spend 44 minutes watching the cross-examination of state witness Johnny Mercil, the state’s use-of-force training expert, and 22 minutes watching the cross-examination of Nicole MacKenzie, the state’s medical care training expert. In both instances the result can only be called a train wreck of a disaster for the prosecution.
Indeed, after the judge dismissed Mercil from the witness stand, Prosecutor Schleiter appeared visibly shaken and angry—and he ought to have, given the mauling his case just received. At one point Mercil testified the he himself had personally kept a suspect physically restrained until EMS had arrived on scene, behavior which the state has been arguing for over a week was misconduct on the part of Chauvin.
Even worse, not only did the cross-examination of MacKenzie by the defense also go badly for the prosecution, it went so badly that Nelson informed the court that he intended to re-call MacKenzie as a defense witness when he presented his case in chief.
There were two other witnesses today, neither of which went particularly badly for the state, although in the case of one of them I expect it was only because the prosecution was saved by the bell when the court recessed early in the day—that doesn’t save the prosecution, that witness will be back tomorrow, and I anticipate that the defense is going to have a field day with him on cross-examination, as well.
Go read the whole thing.
In addition, Morries Hall, the passenger in the car with Floyd, does not want to testify and would plead the 5th. The theory is that he doesn’t want to confess to selling Floyd a lethal dose of fentanyl and implicating himself in a crime.
Lots of reasonable doubt is being injected into this case. Probably enough to get a not guilty verdict.
Then you know what happens next because they told us.
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1379401279345205248
This summer is going to be rough.
Its not like cross examination is something new. If the prosecution was caught flat-footed by cross examination of their own witnesses, somebody did a poor job of gaming out the defense’s strategy and approach.
Or perhaps they expected their witnesses to lie to the defense.
One detail still missing: We are on the second week of the trial and the prosecution has yet to bring out the forensic report. This is important because it will destroy what’s left of the State’s case when it is on the record that Floyd had 3 times the lethal limit of fentanyl in his system. He was literally walking dead when he got pulled out of his car.
I was going to bring that up here, but you beat me to it (probably because it’s your blog). In every murder trial I’ve ever heard of, the first thing the state does is have the coroner or medical examiner tell the jury what the cause of death was (in other words, why they’re having a murder trial). In this case, the state still hasn’t done that, instead spending over a week examining witnesses who sobbed over what they (partially) saw from a distance, had not seen all of, and had no experience or knowledge that would give them a true perspective of what was really happening. I suspect that when the cause of death actually gets into court, it won’t be what the state is saying it is, and the defense will ask for a directed verdict of acquittal. They won’t get it, but still. . . .
They have already had medical testimony, from the ER doctor who pronounced Floyd, deceased that he died from asphyxiation. That being said, I haven’t heard evidence that the pressure from the Chauvin, was the cause of asphyxiation. Overdose causes asphyxiation.
Right, “cause of death” in this case has to be the root cause, not the immediate cause. While you often hear of death due to “cardiac arrest” that’s roughly equivalent to saying “death by death”. The question always is “but why did that happen”.
The fact that the prosecution hasn’t said is telling. Branca refers to the testimony of McMillian, the older gentleman. He reportedly shocked the prosecutor by saying that Floyd had foam coming out of his mouth — which Branca states is associated with fentanyl poisoning.
If the prosecution doesn’t produce the report, the defense can of course order it produced, and if it gets to that point that would look really bad indeed.
Thank you, you said it better than I did. The ER doctor who pronounced Floyd dead didn’t open him up and do an autopsy and didn’t actually state a “cause of death.” The question is, what caused the asphyxiation? and the state hasn’t even addressed that yet. They seem to be too busy with irrelevant, inflammatory testimony designed to anger the jury. But maybe their tactics are too subtle for me to understand.
And, if you’re interested, Andrew Branca at legalinsurrection.com is live-blogging, then posting the video of, the testimony. I started watching it, but my blood pressure can only take so much.
The prosecution knows they have no case.
What they’re doing now is scapegoating a couple of witnesses for “ruining” the case, so the mob goes after the witnesses instead of the attorneys.
There will be riots anyway no matter the verdict. Either in anger or in rubbing our faces in their victory, they will riot.
They say that in court, no attorney should ever ask a question he doesn’t already know the answer to. It sure as hell looks like the prosecution for this case isn’t following that advice.
The testimony of Christopher Martin (the 19 year old cashier at Cup Foods) and Charles McMillian (the 61 year old gentleman who had been heard telling Floyd to stop fighting) did them no favors at all, and that was just on day 3.
I honestly can’t tell if the prosecution is deliberately trying to tank this case, or if they’re just incompetent.
Or they’ve been set to the task of trying to polish a turd. Let’s face it, if the DA you work for is woke-broken enough to want to bring this to trial, how do you think said DA would react when told “no, I don’t want to be the prosecutor because I don’t think we can win?”
It’s a question of not whether he/she/etc would try to tank your career, but for now long and how hard they’d try.
Polish the Turd is exactly it. They’ve been given a “no win scenario.” Obviously Chauvin isn’t a “murderer” – he’s a police officer who got thrown into a shit situation.
@Toastrider: The prosecution is desperate to reduce the mostly peaceful arson and rioting. They must know (especially after yesterday) that their case is tissue paper and Eric Nelson is going to continue to shred it.
Is this Maya person going to be brought up on felony charges of jury intimidation? Nah, I don’t think so.
There will be race riots this summer because democrats want that to happen
As long as those Burn-Loot-Murder idjits keep their commie shenanigans up in them yankee blue cities, I couldn’t care less.
They try to get froggy down here, it’s gonna get ugly for them. Don’t want none don’t start none.
@MiniMe: That is the saddest part. The “law” (???) in those cities seem to be planning on letting it happen ’cause equity? protest? feelz? who the F knows?
I’m so glad that I don’t live there or have a business there. Many innocent people are going to suffer.
Sad, ain’t it? And DemonKKKrats will continue to force innocent Americans to deal with the fallout of their inane progtard communist agendas as long as “our betters” are not affected and their brainwashed crowds continue to vote for those bastards.
Just look at the brouhaha in Georgia: DemonKKKrats were all for it like brainless drones until they realized they were cutting their own noses to spite their faces (yet again).
I bet there isn’t one person in the country more cogent than Joe Biden that needed the BLM spokesperson to say they’re going to riot if they don’t get their way.
BLM riots. Water is wet. Fire will burn. The Gods of the Copybook Headings are strapping on their slaughtering uniforms.
“BLM riots. Water is wet. Fire will burn. The Gods of the Copybook Headings are strapping on their slaughtering uniforms.”
If Kipling lived in 2020….
I predict forthcoming “weather” forecasts: “Near downtown, partly unruly with occasional firebombing. Out near The Mall, scattered protests, with otherwise clear skies. On the other hand, around the university, widespread anarchy with possibility of murder.”
Cities are going to burn? Ok. Your city maybe.
It’s all so tiresome.
https://youtu.be/ZOfql4OWTng
Then again, rioting does not serve the purposes of the democrats any more. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they shut down the rioters hard.
And why isn’t she facing charges for terroristic threats?
There’s a nicely worded observation in the Day 6 discussion:
The fact that the media will only cover direct questioning, however, and will substantively ignore cross-examination has real implications for race relations in America generally and for urban infrastructure in the immediate aftermath of this case, specifically.
“implications … for urban infrastructure” indeed. That’s one way to describe riots and arson.
BTW, the entire collection of articles is here: https://legalinsurrection.com/tag/george-floyd-derek-chauvin-trial/
Yeah, Andrew Branca is rock solid. Been following his analysis so far.
Once Again, Andrew Branca at Legal Insurrection provides the Trial Analysis that no one in Mass Media is willing or allowed to do.
I remember reading his anlysis of the George Zimmerman / Trayvon Martin Trial. He actually showed the YouTube videos of the testimony, sidebars, and the motions that the jury did not see too.
then I read the newspaper reports and saw the local and national news. Biased and untruthful are understatements.
I kept wondering what trial the media were covering, because it bore no resemblance to the Youtube broadcast of the trial or what Mr. Branca reported?
Everyone else was surprised when George Zimmerman was acquitted. I actually watched the trial. I was wondering why the jury took so long to come back with the acquittal?
https://anncoulter.com/2021/04/07/minneapolis-vs-the-evidencex/