Officers in George Floyd case now charged with 2nd degree murder.

George Floyd's Facebook profile picture. 

Four officers in the George Floyd case have now been charged with 2nd degree murder. The Hill. The charge against Derek Chauvin has been upgraded from 3rd degree murder while the other three men, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane, were charged for the first time. Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has endorsed violence from groups like Antifa, was in charge of the decision after the Governor took the case away from local prosecutors. The Justice Department has also opened investigation into the death of George Floyd. A large amount of civil disorder, violence, arson and looting has occurred in the wake of the case. 

My Comment:

This is beyond stupid and it may even cause the prosecution against these men to fail. This is a massive overcharge and I don't think that the prosecution can prove their case. 2nd Degree murder either requires intent, or for the death to have occurred during a felony.

I don't know how on earth your prove intent in this case. The defense will argue that Chauvin was unaware that the suspect was dying and that placing his knee on his neck was to kill him. Indeed, from what I understand Chauvin was following policy for the Minneapolis Police Department for a suspect that appeared to be delirious from drugs. That policy, which seems to be wrong, was designed to help people that are under distress so they weren't hurt. 

It also doesn't match what Chauvin actually did. They did after all call an ambulance to try and help Chauvin after it was clear that he wasn't well. That doesn't match the actions of someone who is trying to kill someone. Why would you do that if your goal is to make sure the guy died? 

I also don't see how this matches what the autopsy said. Floyd had methamphetamine and fentanyl in his system and was positive for SARS-CoV-2, the Coronavirus, though he was asymptomatic. All of those things could show that Floyd was in a bad state and that normal police interaction could have killed him regardless. Without that information the police can claim that they didn't know that Floyd was in such a fragile state and could have been killed so easily. 

I also don't see how they could charge him under the rest of the statute. In Minnesota you can get a 2nd degree murder charge if you kill someone while committing a felony, but I don't see what felony they were committing? Maybe a civil rights violation? Assault? Does that even work? I'm not a lawyer but it seems like that section doesn't apply here. 

I can't see a jury convicting these men on these charges. I think that they had a really good chance at getting justice if they had only charged Chauvin and kept him at the 3rd degree murder charge and 2nd degree manslaughter. Neither of those charges require intent and are therefore much easier to prove. 

I also have some confusion on that point. Are the 3rd degree murder and 2nd degree manslaughter charges lesser included offenses, or are they not. If they are then the jury will probably convict the officers of the lesser charge, but if they aren't, then the officers will get off entirely, unless they get federal charges as well. And if that happens we will probably see a 2nd round of these violent riots that have destroyed so much.

I also think that it's a miscarriage of justice to charge the other men in this case. It didn't look like any of them were causing Floyd's death, at worst they failed to prevent them. I don't think they warrant any charge at all, but charging them with accessory to 2nd degree murder is pretty out there. 

I think that this is pretty obviously politically motivated. Keith Ellison is a racist and far leftist and he hates the police even though he's the attorney general. And I think the rest of the Government of Minnesota just wants to placate the mob. That's the last thing you should ever do to the mob though, as not only does it encourage them, it leads to new demands. Indeed, in this case they are now demanding a 1st degree murder charge which would need to prove premeditation. The 2nd degree charge is already almost impossible to prove but 1st degree? Won't happen. 

Finally, I do want to say that I supported 3rd degree murder/2nd degree manslaughter charges for Chauvin. Even though he was following policy and that George Floyd was in bad condition, he should have known that putting his knee on his neck was dangerous and could result in death. And once it was clear that Floyd was passing out he should have stopped and tried to give him CPR. I think he was overcharged, I don't think he was innocent.