Hey folks,
NOTE: You can find all our coverage of the George Floyd case here:
http://lawofselfdefense.com/floyd
Just wanted to take the opportunity share with you some of the more important legal documents from the George Floyd arrest-related death (ARD) case.
First, we have the most current criminal complaints for each of the four officers now charged in the case. For our legal analysis of those charges, please refer to yesterday’s “News/Q&A Show: June 4, 2020 (George Floyd)”.
Second, we have the full medical examiner’s report (~20 pages) from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Officer, showing once again that there was no apparent injury of any kind to Floyd’s neck, and also documenting his heart disease and atherosclerosis, as well as the toxicology results for his fentanyl, methamphetamine, and THC levels.
CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS
Officer David Chauvin:
Officer Thomas Lane:
Officer Alexander Keung:
Officer Tou Thao:
MEDICAL EXAMINER’S REPORT
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Remember:
You carry a gun so you’re hard to kill.
Know the law so you’re hard to convict.
Stay safe!
–Andrew
Attorney Andrew F. Branca
Law of Self Defense LLC
Pingback: George Floyd Files – Law of Self Defense
90% blockage of the RCA and sickle cell trait? The right side of his heart, which includes the primary pacemaker (the SA node) would be oxygen deprived on a good day, much less while wrestling with the cops.
Great point DIVEMEDIC. After reading both the autopsy and police report, it sounds like the amount of physical force and activity used by officers to get a resisting Mr Floyd into the police car was a preciptating factor that led to his collapse to the ground. I for one am looking forward to Andrew’s analysis of the trial when this begins in a year or two.
Very interesting analysis; specifically, that if there was no bruise on Floyd’s neck then there is no evidence that the officer’s knee applied enough pressure to his neck to interfere with his breathing or blood flow.
I asked my son what this might mean. (He’s doing his internship as an MD.) He replied that it takes a couple of hours for a bruise to form. When the heart stopped that stopped the process of bruise formation.
I assume it didn’t take a couple of hours to get him to the hospital where death was declared. Suppose it took 20 minutes. That wouldn’t have been enough time – if he died at the hospital – for the heart to move blood so that the bruise could form. More than likely, Floyd died a few minutes before or after the EMTs arrived; just a few minutes between the interference that precipitated death and death itself.
Given my son’s opinion (by no means dispositive) and the time-frames assumption, it would seem that there is no evidence one way or the other that the officer’s knee was applied with sufficient pressure for a long enough time to have interfered with his breathing or blood flow. The absence of a bruise is an absence of evidence one way or the other.
I’m not vouching for the accuracy of this bruise information. Could be right or wrong. But, under these circumstances, the conclusion is up to the trier of fact. There just isn’t evidence other than what one can see on the video.
Theoretically, it’s possible that the officer’s knee didn’t actually touch Floyd’s neck for the duration. Floyd was simply trapped as-if he were a weightlifter who was caught under the cross-bar of a dumbbell not touching his neck. More probable is that the officer’s knee did touch his neck from time to time with little to moderate pressure. Yet, not enough to disrupt his breathing or blood flow. The video leaves some room for doubt, but whether it is enough to constitute a “reasonable” doubt is up to the trier of fact.
Outrage is apt to have more impact on the outcome than the persuasiveness of arguments that there is insufficient evidence of enough pressure for a long enough time period to have constituted the cause of death.
The absence of the bruise doesn’t necessarily mean that Chauvin didn’t apply sufficient force to kill Floyd. The absence of the bruise means the matter is ambiguous–maybe killing force was applied, maybe not. Had, for example, Floyd’s trachea been crushed by Chauvin’s knee, we would not have such ambiguity. The knee-caused trauma would have been clear.
But we lack any evidence of knee-caused trauma, and therefore are awash in ambiguity.
In a case in which guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
That’s the LEGAL, not MEDICAL, relevance of the absence of a bruise.
–Andrew
Attorney Andrew F. Branca
Law of Self Defense LLC
Pingback: News/Q&A: June 4, 2020 (George Floyd) – Law of Self Defense