news this morning. a reminder that march madness coverage begins at 4:00 p.m. on kpix5. news at 5:00 will stream on cbsn bay area. the cbs ne this a cbs news special report. the derek chauvin trial. lawyers are about to give their opening statements in the trial of the fired minneapolis police officer accused of killing gayle king george floyd. we will bring them to you live in a few minutes. a bystander captured floyd's death on murder and it sparked outrage across the country and around the globe. that led to months of protest t. before today's legal proceedings began, members of george floyd's

family took a knee outside the courthouse. chauvin faces a series of charges including unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. this morning's opening statements follow several days of jury selection. cbs's jeff bagase is here with me. let's go right now to outside the courtroom because jamie is there in minneapolis. that courthouse now surrounded by an extraordinary amount of securi security. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. we know $1 million has been spent by the city and state to fortify the courthouse. you can see the fencing behind me. you also see journalists moving towards the courthouse right now. when you were talking about george floyd's family taking a knee, that happened to the right of me. everyone downtown awaiting the

opening statements to take place. it will come down to two things when you listen to the opening statements. we've been talking to a lot of legal experts and it's going to come down to use of force and cause of death. that's what you're going to hear. you're going to hear the prosecution laying out the use of force in this case and that derek chauvin had his knee on george floyd's neck for nine minutes. the defense will lay out some other drugs in george floyd's system. they got a win by the judge a week or so ago. they are going to allow -- the judge is going to allow a 2019 arrest of george floyd to be entered in where he did have drugs in his system. a paramedic told him his blood pressure was so high that he could have a heart attack. that was entered in. you also talked about the second-degree and third-degree murder charges. one interesting fact there, while they sound like two very different charges that could carry different sentences, here in the state of minnesota they can carry the same amount of weight in terms of how long, if derek chauvin is convicted, how long he could spend in jail. that's 10 1/2 to 15 years.

another piece of this that will be laid out in the courtroom today. i can tell you the city, there's anxiety around here. we're about two miles from where george floyd died. that area has been under intense security and the neighborhood feeling a lot of stress, waiting for the outcome of this case. that's an area that did see rioting and looting during the initial death of george floyd. and downtown fortified. based on the outcome of this case, we're thinking and heard from city officials that tens of millions of dollars could be spent throughout this trial on security that could last for four weeks. norah? >> jamie yucca outside the courtroom. let's dip inside the courtroom. >> motion this afternoon -- or for this morning. and i believe, mr. frank, are you going to argue that?

>> good idea to move the podium. i apologize, your honor. we filed this motion just to clarify some points particularly in light of opening statements. wae court's ruling, we thought, clear and we understood it, but just wanted to make sure that in opening statements the parties stick to the court's ruling as well. so, that's something isn't said, contrary to the court's ruling and could be heard by the jurors. so, we're really -- i think our motion is self-explanatory. the statements about mr. floyd have to be based on the objective reasonableness standard rather than subject of intentions of mr. floyd. and reasonable officers' analysis of that situation. that's the relevant -- >> give me an example of what you think should not be said. >> that mr. floyd was trying --

or wanted to resist arrest. that he was trying to fight with the officers intentionally. that he was faking or malingering his medical distress. those are the types of things that relate directly to his subjective state of mind. we've written our motion in a way that we realize those apply to both parties. we acknowledge that, certainly. but it's really to clarify what we see as a potential problem with opening statements. so, i think it's rather self-explanatory. wanted to bring it to the court's attention so we could deal with it here this morning and just be clear about it. >> and the other part of that being as far as mr. chauvin's intent or knowledge, vis-a-vis, that policy that you attached to

your motion? >> right. again, it's an objective officer's standard about his perceptions and how they would be dealt with by an objective officer. what he intends to do, right, is relevant because, of course, there's an assault charge and other -- intent is an element of some of these crimes. so, his intent is relevant, but it's his -- his conduct is still judged by objective reasonable standard. >> mr. nelson, anything you want to add? >> no, your honor. i essentially agree as long as we can -- >> hold on. okay, go ahead. >> again, your honor, stating the objective observations on the police officers and of the people who are there. i don't have an issue with that. i agree, per the court's ruling, that mr. floyd's subjective internal process is off limits.

>> all right. and maybe i can give an example because, like most of the judges on this bench, i'm fairly strict regarding no argument in opening. as far as mr. floyd, obviously descriptions of appearances. i think even to the point of saying he appeared to not be complying. i think that's permissible because someone will testify to that. but they cannot say he was resisting. he was, especially in opening. those are conclusions, those are inferences drawn from his behavior. so when witnesses are testifying, we expect they will talk about what they observed as far as appearances. sometimes it has to lapse into it appeared to be resistance or noncompliance. but to say that he was is an

inference from the behavior. i know this is a fine line but just so you know where i would draw it. as far as mr. chauvin at the scene, there's this policy in place. certainly permissible in opening to talk about the policy and how an officer on the scene has to follow this policy, make an assessment. i think if you get to the point of saying the word should is where you get into inferences. for example, if in opening you were to saying, mr. chauvin should have made this evaluation, that's argument. but to say, this is the policy, this is what every officer on the scene should do, that, i think, is objective and it is -- and then you can talk about the behaviors on the scene. >> you're listening now to hennepin county judge peter cahill. let's bring in cbs' legal analyst rikki klieman to explain what we're hearing this morning. good morning. >> good morning, norah. what is happening here is you

have a very smart judge, and you have a very cautious prosecutor. what the prosecutor is saying is that the actions of this defendant, that is officer chauvin, should be judged by an objective standard. that is, what would a reasonable police officer in his position do. on the other hand, they do not want -- the prosecution doesn't want any subjective analysis not only of the defendant but also of george floyd. so, the way the judge wound up ruling is to say, look, you can't use george floyd's mind. we don't know what was in his mind. but we can use the police officer's or other's observations to say, it appeared george floyd was resisting arrest. it appeared to be that george floyd was fighting with the officers rather than saying, he was fighting with the officers.

he was resisting arrest. it's a very technical argument, but this is the distinction, norah. opening statements are supposed to be objective, what you are going to prove. what you are going to introduce in evidence. only at the time of closing arguments can you argue the inferences and be in form of argument. >> it's an excellent point and why we're always so glad to have you with us, rikki klieman, who can break down some of the legalese and why it could be important in the outcome of this case. as we follow these opening arguments that are about to begin and we'll follow closely. we want to bring in jeff because you've covered this case from the beginning, memorial day, 2020 when george floyd was killed there in that square in minneapolis. i've been there, too. but you were on the ground for all of this. this sparked a movement across this country. >> it really has.

and i think the emotion in that event last may has brought out, we'll have to go through those emotions again, and we'll see this video again and again and again. when you look at how the court proceedings have unfolded thus far, you show how -- it shows how this is not really a cut and dry case. you look at the video and you say, it looks like excessive force was used here, but it's not an easy case for prosecutors to make. what they're quibbling there at the beginning of this court proceeding is what you can say in the opening statements, what you can't say and so they really have to be very precise in what they say as this trial in the opening statements progress. to your question, this is a case that sparked this social justice movement that continues to this day. the question is, has any change happened over the last ten

months? we'll be examining that as well. >> we'll talk about this as we're just learning they're taking a ten-minute break right before these opening statements. of course, we'll bring back in rikki klieman and another analyst with us. the other thing hanging over this, a $27 million settlement for the family of george floyd. the largest of this type in history. >> yeah. that is definitely going to play a role, even though when the jurors, prospective jurors at that time were polled about whether the settlement would affect their decision in this case, most of them, many of them said, no, it won't. it's hard to believe it won't be a factor because what that $27 million judgment essentially says is that something wrong happened here. and you don't pay that amount of money unless something. >> let's dig down into what the

opening arguments may preview about this case. as jeff just mentioned, we have some visual evidence that everyone can see. the public has seen, which is about nine minutes in which officer chauvin is holding down george floyd with force. why is that not a slam dunk for the prosecution? >> many people believe it is a slam dunk and all the prosecution would have to do is do an opening statement with permission of the court and play the video. if he does not get permission to play the video during the opening, he can simply say, i want you to just think now and pause for eight minutes and 46 seconds. that amount of silence in and of itself would make the case look like a slam dunk.

however, the rule of law in a courtroom is not so simple. i've often said the strongest moment for a prosecutor is right before the trial begins. right before the opening statement because the trial is a living, breathing thing. and it changes over time depending on how evidence goes in. the defense is two-prong attack. and both prongs could be very strong in persuading this jury either to acquit or come up with a verdict of a lesser offense, particularly the second-degree manslaughter. what are those two theories? number one is cause of death that the defense is saying, no, it was not derek chauvin's knee on george floyd's neck that caused his death. rather, george floyd was suffering from heart disease, he had a serious condition, he knew about that condition from an arrest a year earlier, and he had ingested a large amount of

drugs. the defense will show there were 11 nanograms of fentanyl, a deadly drug in his system. if he was found alone at home and died, three nanograms would be enough to call it an overdose. he also had methamphetamine in his system and he was covid positive. you have the first issue. second issue is training. was derek chauvin trained to do this type of maneuver or had he gone way above the way he was trained and became unreasonable in his use of force? >> boy, that really breaks it down. we should note that officer chauvin has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him. he said his actions did not cause floyd's death more than ten months ago. that was on memorial day of last year. we do want to take this moment now to look back, to remind everyone about what happened. we break it down. we should warn everyone, some of

this video you're about to see is very graphic. >> take a seat. sit down for me. >> thank you, man. thank you. >> sit down. >> thank you, man. >> sit all the way down. your feet out. >> i will. >> reporter: minneapolis police officer alex kueng met george floyd after responding to a forgery at the convenience mart. >> what's your name? >> george floyd. >> reporter: floyd had allegedly used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes. >> stand up. >> reporter: state police said they restrained floyd because he resisted arrest, but he was already in handcuffs when officers were moving him into the back of their squad car. floyd insisted that he was having trouble breathing because he was recovering from the coronavirus. >> i've got covid, man. i can't breathe. >> take a seat. >> please, man, please listen to

me. >> you're going to jail. >> reporter: by this time backup, including derek chauvin, had arrived. chauvin, the training officer on the scene, was one to pull floyd from the vehicle more than seven minutes after he had first been arrested. >> how's is going? on the ground. >> reporter: proceeding to pin floyd's neck with his knee. >> everything hurts. >> uh-huh. >> everything hurts. >> takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to -- >> reporter: when officer thomas lane asked chauvin if it would be best to roll floyd on his side, he responded -- >> stand. [ bleep ]. >> sorry about that. >> reporter: as the situation escalated, bystanders demanded

chauvin take his knee off george floyd and begged officer thao to make sure floyd is still breathing. >> is he breathing? check his pulse. check his pulse. check his pulse. thao, check his pulse. thao, check his pulse. check his pulse. >> reporter: by the time the ambulance arrived and chauvin finally removed his knee, floyd had already appeared to be unconscious for several minutes. he had been pinned down for about nine minutes. when he was loaded into the ambulance, floyd was still in handcuffs. . he was pronounced dead at the hospital. an autopsy report from the county medical examiner's office concluded floyd died of heart failure, not suffocation. it also indicated that he was, in fact, positive for the coronavirus and had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death.

but an independent autopsy commissioned by floyd's family determined that asphyxiation from sustained pressure killed him. the pressure to his neck and back had cut off the flow of blood and oxygen to his brain. >> save lives! >> reporter: floyd's death became the focal point for a summer of emotional protests against police brutality and racial inequality. >> the police are lobbing tear gas into the crowd. people in the crowd are sending fire crackers, m-80s back. >> reporter: demonstrators hit the streets nationwide and even international. >> black lives matter! >> reporter: it's been nearly a year since george floyd's final moments were first broadcast to the world. >> it has been a day of raw emotion here in minneapolis as this city and the country mourn ammed a man whose death has inspired a movement.

>> reporter: and while he may have inspired a movement, now floyd's family hopes chauvin's child will prove that it wasn't in vain. >> i've got faith. in this case will never break my faith. i have faith that he will get convicted. just like everybody who seen that video because the video is the proof. >> jeff is with us. that is the case. really in many ways that the prosecution wants to make, is that the video is the slam dunk. it's painful to watch what happened. >> yeah. and rarely do we see and get such a complete picture of video. we have several body camera angles. >> the bystander. >> the bystander video, which is, of course, the video we all saw first that got us covering the story in the first place because it was just -- to see that on camera. you don't see something like that every day, thankfully, but it was so shocking.

that's what jurors will see. all of these different camera angles, the bystander video and -- >> and you point out, they're going to try to make the case that george floyd was resisting arrest. >> you could see that from the outset this morning. the discussion about what can be said, what can't be said. it seems -- >> appears to be. i'm sorry, the judge -- >> appears to be that he was resisting arrest. well, that's arguable. i mean, if you look at that videotape, all of the different angles of the videotape, he says, i'm suffering from covid and he's crying out for his mother. we didn't see it there, but we have audio that says that. so, you know, to suggest -- if there's any suggestion on the part of the defense that he was resisting arrest and maybe faking his anguish, his pain, i don't know. when you look at that video t might be difficult to look at

that. >> let's bring in defense attorney joe tamborino. he's in minneapolis this morning. so good to have you with us, joe. let's stay on that point, that video, which we just saw so clearly in the piece jeff has put together. how difficult will it be for the defense? >> good morning. thank you for having me on. it will be difficult but, remember, what the defense has to do is get the jury to see other evidence because this case is going to be about a battle between cause of death and use of force. the defense is going to say cause of death is either drugs or heart failure and the prosecution is going to say, this case is about use of force, meaning that mr. chauvin used unreasonable defense of force. >> what is the definition of unreasonable force? >> well, that's a great question. you see, because each situation is different. depending upon the level of force an officer is facing, an

officer could use a certain amount of force to match that. now, in this case, mr. chauvin, when he was a police officer at the time, that maneuver that he did with the knee on the neck was permissible by minneapolis police department. so, the prosecutors got to be able to show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that even though that was permitted, he went above and beyond that by having the knee on the neck for such a long period of time. >> you mentioned it was permitted. that has since -- that is no longer permitted by the police, correct? >> that's correct. there was an agreement between the state of minnesota and the minneapolis city and the mayor signed off on that. so, that maneuver is no longer permitted in minneapolis. >> do you imagine we'll get to a point in the trial where there's a discussion about whether almost nine minutes of holding george floyd down represents unreasonable force? >> yes, that will definitely be the case because this will also involve a lot of expert testimony. from the defense side you'll hear experts talk about how george floyd had drugs in his

system, heart failure. from the prosecution side you will hear experts say having a knee on the neck for that long inhibited blood flow or some type of breathing so that that contributed, because remember, in this case, the prosecutors don't have to show that but for mr. chauvin's actions, mr. floyd died. all they have to show is that mr. chauvin's actions were a substantial causal factor in mr. floyd's death. >> quickly, this judge has allowed a third-degree murder charge to be added. at the same time, he has also allowed past evidence of george floyd's drug use and arrest,y e correct? >> that is correct. the judge allowed a may 2019 or portions of mr. floyd's arrest and the judge did permit the third-degree murder charge as count two in this three-count complaint. >> joe, thank you. the court is back in session. the jury has been brought in. let's show you those pictures now. we can see that judge cahill is

swearing in everyone quickly. let's listen to jamie yucca. she's just outside the courthouse. what's the mood outside the courthouse? >> reporter: yesterday there were hundreds of protests in downtown minneapolis. when you talk to people, they talk about the anxiety of watching the start and what the outcome could possibly be. you can also see that there is so much security downtown. you can see the fencing just right around the courthouse right here, but as you walk around, there are barricades to keep people on the sidewalks and out of the streets. there's razor wiring to make sure people don't jump in different places. this is all in a way to protect both the jurors coming and going and the people downtown making sure protesters don't get out of hand, like we saw last spring in a number of incidents where there was some rioting and looting. as i said, over the last several

days, it's been fairly peaceful. people mostly anxious about the end of this trial. at least $1 million has been spent by the city and the state so far and the security measures here, but we were told by some experts that it could be tens of millions as this case starts ramping up and we get toward deliberations at the end of this case. again, this case could take up to four weeks just to hear all of the different witnesses. we know there are more than 350 potential witnesses who could be called in to take the stand. there likely will not be that many, but that's why the case could take that long, norah. >> jamie, thank you. let's listen in to judge peter cahill, who is instructing the jury. >> and sincerity or the lack thereof, the reasonableness or the unreasonableness of their testimony in light of all the other evidence. and any other factors that bear on the question of believability and credibility. and last analysis, you should align your own experience, good

judgment and common sense. now, you will be given no pad so you may take notes during the trial. you should not, however, feel required to do so. the most important thing is that you give full attention to the testimony as you hear it. now, to protect the privacy of your notes, i would suggest you write your random juror number, which we will keep the same, and put that on the first sheet and begin taking notes on the second sheet. we also have extra pads if you run out of space. we will collect and keep your notes secure at the end of each day so you can leave them on the chair during breaks and at the end of the day. at the end of the trial, you will be allowed to take your notes with you, into deliberation. i will instruct you further regarding the use of those notes at the end of the trial. keep in mind also that i cannot give you a trial transcript at the end of the trial. no such transcript can be prepared for your deliberation.

we count on the jury to rely on its collective memory and the exhibits submitted to you. now, during the trial an objection may be made to some evidence and i may sustain or overrule the objection. if i sustain the objection, it means that the question may not be answered. in that case, you should simply ignore the question and any answer that might have been given. if no answer was given before the objection was made, you should not speculate about what the possible answer might have been. similarly, if i instruct you during the trial to disregard some statement that a witness or attorney has made, then you must disregard it. if i overrule the objection, it means that the question may be answered. in that case, you should treat the answer like any other answer. similarly, if an exhibit is received despite an objection, you should treat that exhibit like any other evidence. from time to time during the

trial, the attorneys will need to discuss issues of law or scheduling matters with me. if these discussions are brief, the lawyers and i will use the wireless headsets while the white noise is on. if the discussions are lengthier, i may take a recess. please understand, we are not attempting to conceal anything from you, which is necessary for you to hear. i ask that you be patient when we have these discussions, even though they may interrupt the case. and just as an aside, we are scheduled to have the time between 8:30 and 9:30 every morning set aside for the lawyers to argue legal issues, so hopefully we can handle most of that before we begin at 9:30 each morning. now, when i turn on the white noise, that's your indication that the conversation is not for you. so, please, do not attempt to listen in. please, come to order when i turn the white noise off. i'm also giving that instruction

to anyone who's a spectator here. the white noise is a private conversation usually about scheduling, nothing exciting, between me and the attorneys. you can use that opportunity, however, if you like, to stand up, stretch, talk to your neighbor, but if you could, make sure you don't -- if there's a piece of black tape in front of you, please don't cross that line. we've taken great care to make sure you are never on camera. so, as long as you stay behind that black line and even stretch in the aisle between, you should be just fine. now, the cameras have been angled so, as i said, you will never be in the video. when entering and departing from the courtroom, please use the aisle between the two rows of seats. do not get out of your seat until the deputy is at the door waiting to escort you back to the other room. there are things you should not

do during this trial. as i said during jury selection, you are not investigators. you are not to go out to do any -- >> interesting to hear the judge there instructing the jury about how they may take notes, how they will be kept secret and how they should conduct themselves during what is expected to be a month-long trial of officer derek chauvin. the other officers will also face trial on different charges later on this year. i want to bring in cbs news contributor ibrahim to put this into broader context. the author of "how to be an anti-racist request the ". ibrahim, so good to have you. thank you. as we take a moment just to reflect, the george -- the murder of george floyd, which is on trial today, sparked a movement in this country that continues to this day. how do you expect this trial to

impact that? >> well, i think you have millions of americans who took to the streets, as you know, as we all know, last year because they felt there was all this sort of police violence, all this racism, but most importantly, there wasn't any change, there wasn't people being held accountable. and i think this case in particular is going to sort ofo say to history and say to the american people whether people can g get away with what i woul imagine derek chauvin, you know, did to george floyd, whihich fr my reading was certainly something that he should have never done. george floyd should still be with us. i ththink many americans see th and they're going to determine

whether we have the capacity to hold police officers accountable from this case. >> yeah, we know that so few officers accused of murder are ultimately guilty. most of them are exonerated in a trial or by the jury. jeff pegeuse is with us. we were there for the memorial and went to houston, where george floyd grew up. i was struck when i went there, how multigenerational and how multiracial the protests and the people that came out to pay respects. it really was something that affected older white americans as well as black americans. i mean, it really was -- there was widespread outrage about what happened. >> frankly, how could there not be with all that video floating around for the public to see? and confirm what

african-americans in this country have been saying for decades. there's a different standard in the justice system here in america. and sometimes police are using excessive force when they come to arrest us. here's why we have to behave a certain way that's different than people who are not black americans. to the multicultural aspect of this, you're right. i'm glad you brought that up. as soon as i got on the ground in may, you could see it. and i was calling back here to d.c. telling our producers that, you know, this is a diverse crowd. and on the first day of these protests, and typically we weren't seeing that. >> your book that became a number one "new york times" bet seller, "how to be an anti-racist," explain what that moons for those who have not read it or encountered it? >> well, i mean, what it means,

you take last year, i think what happened to george floyd was part of a larger problem where black people were being killed at disproportionately high rates from the police. black people were disproportionately incarcerated. we've been dying at twice the rates of white people from covid-19. to be anti-racist is to see the cause of those disparities as not what's wrong with black people but what's wrong with racism. and to activively seek, to crea a just just and equitable society for us all. to be anti-racist is to actively want to create that society, equal opportunity and equal justice. >> given the book that you've written and the attention it's gotten, given what we've seen around george floyd and other cases across the country, in the last ten months or so, do you

think there has been the type of change in this country where people are realizing the inequities in the justice system? >> well, by june of last year, one poll found that about 3 out of 4 americans were recognizing that racism was a big problem. but by the end of the summer, that had declined double digits. >> ibram, forgive me, because we're now going to listen into the opening statements. >> good morning. my name is jerry blackwell. i apologize for talking to you through this plexiglass but it's probably the least of the gifts the pandemic has given us. you're going to learn in this case a lot about what it means to be a public servant and to have the honor of wearing this badge. it's a small badge that carries

with it a large responsibility and a large accountability to the public. what does it stand for? it represents the very motto of the minneapolis police department, to protect with courage, to serve with compassion, but it also represents the essence of the minneapolis police department approach to the use of force against its citizens, when appropriate. the sanctity of life and the protection of the public shall be the cornerstones of the minneapolis police department's use of force. compassion, sanctity of life, cornerstones, and that little badge is worn right over the officer's heart. but you're also going to learn that the officers take an oath when they become police officers. they take an oath that i will enforce the law, courteously and

appropriately. as you will learn, as applies to this case, never employing unnecessary force or violence. not only that, i recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and i accept it as a public trust to be held so long as i am true to the ethics of police service. symbol of public faith, ethics to police service, be sanctity of life, all of this matters tremendously to this case because you will learn that on may 25th of 2020, mr. derek chauvin betrayed this badge. when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of mr. george floyd. that he put his knees upon his

neck and his back, grinding and crushing him until the very breath -- no, ladies and gentlemen, until the very life was squeezed out of him. you will learn that he was well aware that mr. floyd was unarmed, that mr. floyd had not threatened anyone, that mr. floyd was in handcuffs, he was completely in the control of the police, he was defenseless. you will learn what happened in that 9:29, the most important numbers you will hear in this trial, 9:29. what happened in those 9:29 when mr. derek chauvin was applying this excessive force to the body of mr. george floyd. we have two objectives in this trial, ladies and gentlemen. the first objective is to give mr. chauvin a fair trial. mr. chauvin has a presumption of

innocence. he is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. we plan to prove to you, beyond a reasonable doubt, that mr. chauvin was anything other than innocent on may 25, 2020. our second objective, ladies and gentlemen, is to bring you evidence, which i'm trying to preview this morning. we are bringing this case, the prosecution against mr. chauvin for the excessive force that he applied onto the body of mr. george floyd for engaging in behavior that was imneminently dangerous and the force he applied without regard for its impact on the life of mr. george floyd. let's begin by focusing on what we'll learn about this 9:29. you will be able to hear mr. floyd saying, please, i can't breathe. please, man, please. in this 9:29 you will see that

as mr. floyd is handcuffed on the ground, he is verbalizing 27 times, you will hear, in the 4:45, i can't breathe, please, i can't breathe. you will see mr. chauvin is kneeling on mr. floyd's neck and back. he has one knee on his neck and his knee on his back, off and on on his back, as you'll be able to see for yourself in the video footage. you will hear mr. floyd as he cries out. you hear him at some point cry for his mother when he's being squeezed there. he's very close to his mother, as you will learn. you hear him say, tell my kids i love them. you will hear him say about his fear of dying, he says, i'll probably die this way. i'm through. i'm through. they're going to kill me. they're going to kill me, man. you'll hear him crying out and you will hear him cry out in pain. my stomach hurts. my neck hurts. everything hurts.

you will hear that for yourself. please, i can't breathe. please, your knee on my neck. you will hear it. then you'll see at the same time while he's crying out, mr. chauvin never moves. the knee remains on his neck. sunglasses remain undisturbed on his head and it just goes on. you will hear his final words when he says, i can't breathe. before that time, you will hear his voice get heavier. you will hear his words further apart. you will see that his respiration gets shallower and shallower, and finally stops when he speaks his last words, i can't breathe. and once we have his final words, you'll see that for roughly 53 seconds, he is completely silent and virtually motionless with just sporadic movements. you'll learn those sporadic movements matter greatly in this

case because what they reflect. mr. floyd was no longer breathing when he's making these movements. you'll learn something in this case about an innoxic seizure. it's the body's automatic reflex when breathing has stopped due to oxygen depurivation. we'll point out the unvoluntary movements from mr. floyd and you'll learn something about agonal breathing. when the heart has stopped, blood is no longer coarsing through the veins. we'll point out when mr. floyd is having the agonal breathing. again, as an involuntary reflex to the oxygen deprivation. so, we learn here that mr. floyd at some point is completely passed out.

mr. chauvin continues on, as he had, knee on the neck, knee on the back. you'll see he does not let up and he does not get up for the remaining, as you can see, 3:51. during this period of time, you will learn that mr. chauvin is told that they can't even find a pulse on mr. floyd. you learn he's told that twice. they can't even find a pulse. you will be able to see for yourself what he does in response. you will see that he does not let up and that he does not get up. even when mr. floyd does not even have a pulse, it continues on. it continues on, ladies and gentlemen, even after the ambulance arrives on the scene. the ambulance is there and you'll be able to see for yourself what mr. chauvin is doing when the ambulance is there. you can compare -- you'll be able to compare how he looks in this photograph to how he looked in the first 4:45. same position. doesn't let up.

you'll see he doesn't get up. the paramedic from the ambulance comes over. you'll be able to see this in the video. he checks mr. floyd for a pulse. he has to check him for a pulse, you'll see, with mr. chauvin continuing to remain on his body at the same time. doesn't even get up when the paramedic comes to check for a pulse. doesn't find one. mr. chauvin doesn't get up. you can see the paramedics have taken the gurney out of the ambulance, rolled it over next to the body of mr. floyd and you'll be able to see mr. chauvin still doesn't get up, doesn't let up. and you'll see it wasn't until such time as they start -- they want to move the lifeless body of george floyd onto it the gurney. only then does mr. chauvin let up and get up and you'll see them drag mr. floyd's body unceremoniously cast it onto the

gurney. and that was for a total of 4:44. you can see here that for the first 4:45, you'll learn mr. floyd was calling out, crying for his life. ladies and gentlemen, not just mr. floyd. you're going to hear and see there were any number of bystanders there who were also calling out to let up and get up. such that mr. floyd would, able to breathe and to maintain and sustain his life. but then for the remaining 4:44, mr. floyd was either unconscious, breathless or pulseless. and the compression, the squeezing, the grinding went on just the same. for a total of 9:29. you're going to learn in this case quite a lot about the minneapolis police department's

use of force policy. what you're going to see and learn a lot about is what is standard for applying force against individuals, the use of force policy. you'll learn minneapolis police department employee shall only use the amount of force that is objectively reasonable in light of the facts and circumstances. the force used shall be consistent with current minneapolis police department training. what you learn, ladies and gentlemen, is that the use of force must be evaluated from one moment to the next moment. from moment to moment. what may be reasonable in the first minute, may not be reasonable in it the second minute, the fourth minute or the 9:29. that has to be evaluated from moment to moment. you'll also learn that the minneapolis police are precluded, not allowed to use

any more force than is necessary to bring a person under their control. they can't use any more restraint than is necessary. you're going to meet an expert. his name is jody speeger. he's a los angeles police department sergeant and use of force expert. he's going to tell you that the force that mr. chauvin was using was lethal force. it was force that was capable of killing a human or putting his or her life in danger. the evidence is going to show you that there was no cause in the first place to use lethal force against a man who was defenseless, who was handcuffed, who was not resisting. there's no cause to use that force in the first place. you're going to hear from minneapolis police sergeant david pleeger who is going to come and talk to you. he arrived at the scene after this took place. he is going to tell you that the

force against mr. floyd should have ended as soon as they put him on the ground in the first place. meaning the 9:29 should not have been even a one, less much less than 9:29. and that went on for way too long. he will tell you in terms of the restraint on the ground and the manner of the restraint from mr. floyd. you're also going to learn about another very important policy in the minneapolis police department that's a core principle of policing. you will hear this phrase that police have to live by in terms of how it is they relate to the public. in your custody is in your care. in your custody is in your care. meaning that if you as an officer have an individual, a subject that's in your custody, it is your duty to care for that person. and you will learn caring, ladies and gentlemen, is not a

feeling. it's a verb. it's something you're supposed to do to provide care for that person. you will hear from any number of police officers who will talk about this duty to provide care. officer nicole mckenzie, who is the minneapolis police department medical support coordinator. you'll hear from sergeant yang, the mpd crisis intervention coordinator. in your custody is in your care. you're going to learn when mr. floyd was unconscious, when he was breathless, when he did not have a pulse, that there was a duty to administer care, to let up and get up, you will learn. you'll listen to minneapolis police commander katie blackwell, no relation -- and she'll tell you about the training mr. chauvin received. you'll hear he was a veteran on

the minneapolis police department for 19 years, have been trained in cpr multiple times at the time. and you'll be able to see for yourself that when mr. floyd was in distress, mr. chauvin wouldn't help him, didn't help him, but you're also going to see that he stopped anybody else from being able to help. you'll learn that amongst the bystanders was a first responder, a member of the minneapolis fire department who was trained in administering first aid and emergency care. she's going to come and talk with you. her name is genevieve hansen. she wanted to check his pulse. she wanted to check on mr. floyd's well-being. she wanted to let up and get up. she did her best to intervene to be able to act, to entintercede. you'll see when she approached, reached for his mace in his belt

and point it in her direction so she couldn't help. she'll talk with you about that experience. now, you're going to learn in the aftermath of this that mr. chauvin's last day of employment with the minneapolis police department was on may 26th of 2020. the minneapolis chief of police is going to come and talk to you. he was the police chief at the time. he's the chief today. he's going to tell you mr. chauvin's conduct was not consistent with minneapolis police department training, was not consistent with minneapolis police department policy, was not reflective of the minneapolis police department. he will not mince any words. he's very clear. he's very decisive that this was excessive force. so ultimately, ladies and gentlemen, what was this all

about in the first place? you're going to learn it was about a counterfeit $20 bill used at a convenience store. that's all. you will not hear any evidence that mr. floyd knew that it was fake or did it on purpose. you will learn from witnesses we will call that the police officers could have written him a ticket and let the court sort it out. you will learn that even if he did it on purpose, it was a minor offense, a misdemeanor. . in terms of the charges we are bringing, we're going to prove to you that mr. chauvin's conduct was a substantial cause of mr. floyd's death. we charged him with murder in the second degree, murder in the third degree and manslaughter for using excessive force against george floyd. you will learn the use of

excessive and reasonable force against a citizen is an assault and this case we will show you this was an assault that contributed to taking his life. we're going to show you that putting knees on somebody's neck, mr. floyd's, putting a knee on his back for 9:29 was imminently dangerous activity. and he did it without regard to what impact it had on mr. floyd's life. we'll show you that also. putting him on the ground. we call that the prone position. on your stomach, face down, putting him in the prone position handcuffed like this in the first place was uncalled for. that was an excessive use of force, let alone for 9:29. how are we going to prove these charges? we're going to prove it, ladies and gentlemen, first and foremost, by witness testimony. we're going to bring in some bystanders i referred to, normal

folk, that will tell you what they saw, they'll tell you why they stopped, they'll tell you why they were concerned. they'll tell you from that witness chair. you'll hear from any number of police officers responsible for training, responsible for what the officers learn around first aid, coming to it the care of others. we'll bring in a number of police officers, including the chief of police. but we're also going to bring in various professionals and experts, medical experts, experts in police conduct. you're going to meet any number of them. you'll have a forensic pathologist, dr. thomas, who studies the tissues of the deceased, as a forensic pathology to determine the cause and manner of death. you're going to hear from a pulmonologist, dr. tobin. he's a lung specialist, cardiologist, heart specialist, critical care physicians,

emergency medicine mi, internal medicine and also from toxicology. we'll also bring in the court dr. andrew baker, who's the hennepin county medical examiner and tell you what he found. we'll also bring him in. but we'll also bring in experts who will prove the use of force here was not reasonable. i mentioned early chief of staff for the l.a. police department and seth stoughton. you will hear from both of them. i spent a few minutes talking to you about what this case is about. there are any number of things this case is not about. maybe an infinite number this case is not about. but one of those things this case is not about, all police or all policing. you will learn from chief arredondo when he comes that police officers have difficult jobs, they have to make

split-second decisions. they sometimes have to make split-second life and death decisions. in this trial, you're going to meet any number of the men and women from the minneapolis police department who do a fantastic job. they're committed, take very seriously preserving the sanctity of life. i mentioned already commander katie blackwell, sergeant carrie yang, officer nicole mckenzie, to name a few. this case is about mr. derek chauvin and not about any of those men and women and it's not about all policing at all. and this case is not about about split-second decision-making. in 9:29, there are 479 seconds, not a split second among them. that's what this case is about. you are going to hear from one of the bystanders, charles mcmillen. charles mcmillen is going to talk to you about the excessive force that he saw mr. chauvin

displaying on may 25th. and he will tell you what he experienced in the way that mr. chauvin looked at him and the other bystanders, who were calling out for mr. floyd's life. he will tell you what he saw in terms of mr. chauvin never letting up, getting up on his body. you will be able to observe mr. chauvin's body language for yourself in the video and determine what that language says to you. so i'm going to show you in a moment one of the videos you're going to see in this trial just to tee up for you what will be the essence of what we will be focused on in the trial. i need to tell you ahead of time that the video is graphic, that it can be difficult to watch. it is simply the nature of what we're dealing with in this trial, ladies and gentlemen.

you'll see any number of videos from police officers who had body-worn cameras on. you're also going to see videos from the bystanders. normal folks, the bystanders. a bouquet of bystanders. you'll see a little girl wearing a green shirt on the right with the words "love" on the green shirt. i won't say her name now because she's a minor, but she is going to come and talk with you about what she saw. next to her in the blue pants is her cousin, who at the time was also a minor. i won't tell you her name but she's also going to come in and talk to you. her cousin was taking the younger one to cup foods to be able to pick up candy and snacks when they came upon what was happening with mr. chauvin and mr. floyd on the ground.

next to the young woman in the blue pants is genevieve hanson, the first responder who tried to intervene to check his pulse and check on mr. floyd. she's going to come and testify to you. next next to her is a young man named donald williams, he's also trained in mixed martial arts, who was very excited and alarmed about what he was in the exchange between mr. chauvin on top of george floyd. he's going to come and testify. a number of by standers will be coming in to talk with you. and so they come from the broad spectrum of humanity, different races, different genders. you have older people, younger people, but you will see that what they all had in common as they were going about their business is that they saw something that was shocking to them, that was disturbing to them, and it made them stop and take note. stop and take note. they tried to first, you will learn when you meet them, to

int intercede on what was happening with their voices. they tried to interject, to exhort, to please stop, to try to get into what we call good trouble just with their voices because something there was concerning to them, and when that didn't work, you can see any number of them pulled out their cameras to document what was happening. such that it would be memorialized, such that it would not be misrepresented. such that it could not be forgotten. what we'll see this morning will be the footage taken from one of these bystanders in just a moment. and you will learn with respect to these by standers, that none of them knew who george floyd was. they didn't know his history. they didn't know anything about him. all they knew was they came up on an individual that they saw was in some serious distress under the knees of mr. chauvin.

and it alarmed them. let me show you what the scene looks like just briefly. here in minneapolis this takes place at the intersection of chicago avenue and 38th street at cub foods. if you can see the image of a squad car on chicago avenue, that is ultimately where mr. floyd was being restrained on the ground, under the knees of mr. chauvin. we will spend quite a bit more time with this map during the trial, but just for now, i just wanted to try to set the stage for what you're going to see. so with that, i'm going to show you the video evidence. the video evidence, i think, will be very helpful and meaningful to you because you can see it for yourlf wsehout lawyer talk, lawyer spin, lawyer anything. you can see it for yourself.

>> he crying. >> please. please. please, i can't breathe. please, man. please. please. >> you got him down, man, let him breathe at least, man. i've been trying to help out. >> let him breathe. >> when my homey died. >> relax. >> i can't breathe. >> what do you want? >> i can't breathe.

please, i can't breathe. >> get up and get in the car, man. >> i will. >> get up and get in the car. >> i can't move. get up and get in the car. >> mama, mama. i can't. >> get in, you can't win. >> my knee, my neck. i'm through. i'm through. >> my stomach hurts. my neck hurts. everything hurts. water or something. please. please. i can't breathe, officer. they're going to kill me. >> brother, you get off his. >> his nose is bleeding, come on now. look at his nose. >> you have your knee on his

neck, officer. >> i cannot breathe. i cannot breathe. >> he's a grown human. you're a tough guy. you're a tough guy, huh. is he a tough guy. he's not even resisting arrest. >> he ain't doing nothing. put him in the car. >> he'll kill me. >> how long you all going to hold him down. >> you all don't got to put -- >> he is human, bro. >> his nose is bleeding. >> put him in the car. >> we tried that for ten minutes. >> that's some bum ass shit. sit there with your knee on his neck, bro. bro. >> a jiu-jitsu. you trapped him. you don't think that's what it was. you don't think nobody understands that. i trained at the academy. that's bull shit, bro.

that's bull shit. you're stopping his breathing. >> he's talking, but you can get him off the ground. you're being a bum. you can get him off the ground, bro. you can get him off the ground. you're being a bum right now. >> he enjoying that shit. he a fucking bum, bro. he enjoying that shit. you could have put him in the car. he ain't resisting arrest. your body language, you fucking bum. >> get the fuck off of him. >> you already know that, bro. i trained with half of these bum ass dudes at the academy. you know that bogus right now, you know it's bogus. you can't look at me like a man because he's a bum. he's not resisting arrest. >> he's passed out. >> you're stopping his breathing, you think that's cool? you think that's cool right. what's your badge number, bro. you think that's cool right now,

bro. >> call the police on another police. >> you think that's cool, though, bro, you're a bum, bro. you're a bum for that. you're a bum for that, bro. you getting mad, stopping his breathing right now. > look at him. what the fuck. >> look at him. >> get off of him now. >> what is wrong with you all. >> what the fuck, he got maced. >> you're a fucking pussy. >> check on him, he's not responsive right now. back off. >> look at him. >> get off the street. >> he's not respondisive right now. here's not responsive right now, bro. look at him, he's not responsive right now, bro. >> check for a pulse. check for a pulse. >> let me see a pulse. >> is he breathing right now.

>> check his pulse. check his pulse. >> okay. thao check his pulse, bro, bro, check his pulse. you bogus. don't do drugs, bro, what is that. you call what he doing okay. you call what he doing okay. you call what he doing, okay, bro. you think that's okay. check his pulse. >> check his pulse. >> the man ain't moved yet, bro. the man ain't moved yet, bro. >> minneapolis. >> bro, you're a bum, bro. you're a bum, you are definitely a bum, bro. >> tell me what his pulse is right now. >> check for a pulse. he has not moved, not one time. >> he's off tracker right now. >> go back in the store, bro, you don't understand. that's cool, go back in the store, bro. go back in the store. he's not fucking moving. >> i see that. i'm trying to help you all out. >> i know your parents, i know

everybody that runs the store, you don't need to help me out. he's not fuck moving. he was moving when i walked up her. get back out here, bro. he just got back out here, bro. >> he doesn't have a bro, he's not fucking moving. >> did they fucking dikill him. you're a bum, pro. 987. you're a bum. first thing you want to grab is your mace because you're scared. scared of fucking minorities. >> get off of him. what are you doing. >> three minutes, he's not fucking moving. >> he's dying. >> bro, he's not even fucking moving, get off of his neck. >> you're still on him. >> are you serious. >> bro, are you serious. you going to keep on his neck.

>>. >> call the ambulance. >> bro, he's just going to let him keep his hand on his neck. you're a bitch bro. you going to let him kill him in front of you. he's not even fucking moving. >> you're not going to help us? >> e he's black. they don't care. >> they don't care, bro. >> you going to just sit there with your knee on his neck. you a real man for that, bro. he's handcuffed. you're a real man, bro. >> the fact that you aren't checking h checking his pulse and doing compressions. you are on another level. >> oh, my god. >> they just dragged him. come on now. >> i have your name tag, bitch. >> that's not very professional.

>> it don't matter. >> freedom of speech. don't touch him. >> i got this all on camera. >> watch out. >> you touched him. you went to him, so shut up. you went to him. always trying to start something. >> he's fucking dead, bro. >> 9:29, the three most important numbers in the case. 9 minutes and 29 seconds is how long that went on for half of that time, mr. floyd was unconscious, breathless, pulseless. you will see in the videos, ladies and gentlemen, that mr. floyd from time to time was heaving up his right shoulder. there's a reason for that. mr. chauvin is on his left side,

his back and his neck, he can't move that. his hands are behind his back. he's heaving up his shoulder, so he can get room for his rib cage to expand to breathe. at this point, you'll learn, he's pancaked with the hard pavement be beneath him, and mr. chauvin on top of him. in order to breathe, you have to have room for the lungs to expand in and out. and you'll see mr. floyd doing his best to kind of crank his right shoulder up, having to lift up his weight and mr. chauvin's weight on top of him to get a breath for as long as he could get a breath, and you will see and hear more about that during the trial. you will learn that a number of the bystanders there called the police on the police. genevieve hanson, the first responder called the police on the police. you'll learn that donald williams, the young man who's very vocal, security background, mixed martial arts background, saw the pressure that was put on

the neck. he called the police on the police. but not only that, you're going to learn that there was a 911 dispatcher, her name is jenna scurry. jenna scurry is going to come and talk to you also. there was a fixed police camera that was trained on this particular scene and she could see through the camera what was going on. you will learn that what she saw was so unusual and for her so disturbing that she did smething that she had never done in her career, she called the police on the police, a 911 dispatcher. she called sergeant david plinker who's going to testify, she called him to report what she saw because she found it just that disturbingment she will tell you that she saw a man literally lose his life, and you will hear her testify. now, i want to talk to you a

little bit about intent, that is, what are evidences going to be on the issue of intent. as i mentioned we're going to show you that the use of force here was excessive and unreasonable, we're going to show you that it was not accidental in terms of what was happening there at the scene. that what mr. chauvin was doing, he was doing deliberately. now, when we bring you the evidence of intent, it's not going come in like a sandwich board that has a front side and a backside, and the front side says this is our evidence of intent, and the backside says, yeah, you saw it. we will bring it to you, ladies and gentlemen, through the totality of all the evidence, looking at it all together. you will hear from nicole mckenzie, the medical support coordinator for the minneapolis police department. she will tell you that the dangers of the prone position, putting people face down on the ground, have been known about in policing for over 30 years, that they train officers on it.

she will tell you that arrestees, citizens who are under arrest should never be put in the prone position, except momentarily to get them under police custody, or control to get handcuffs on them. but never left in that position. you will learn that mr. floyd was in handcuffs already. they didn't need to put him on the ground to get him under police control. and she will tell you that the reason that you don't put persons or leave them in the prone position and leave them that way, let alone with a man's body weight, let aknown for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, and the reason you don't do that is because of the potential to obstruct the airways. you're going to hear from lieutenant johnny mersel, the minneapolis police department use of force training coordinator. he's going to tell you about what training mr. chauvin had to see, but he's also going to tell you that he knows of no training

that will suggest that kneeling on somebody's neck, as mr. chauvin was doing, was proper. according to minneapolis police department training. you will learn that officers are trained to avoid putting pressure on areas that are above the areas of the shoulder. on the spinal column, on the neck, on the head, and that to do that is using deadly force because if you are putting pressure of blows in those areas, you run the risk of seriously injuring the person or potentially even killing them. it can be deadly force. they're trained not to do that. above all, the police are trained in the side recovery position, that if you have to put somebody in the prone position to get them under control, you turn them over on their side as soon as possible so you don't obstruct their airways by having them on their stomach, where the lungs can't expand in the chest, let alone having them on their back.

you put them in the side recovery position right away. you will hear all about the importance of that, and we'll obviously bring you the evidence of all of the warnings that mr. chauvin would have received, not just from george floyd himself, from the calls and crying out by the bystanders. from the approach of the ambulance, from the paramedics and so on. all of whom did their part to encourage him to let up and to get up. you'll be able to consider that, too, under the umbrella of intent. now, i want to talk with you a second about the evidence on causation, the medical causation in terms of what was happening to mr. floyd while he was there on the ground. and if i had to give this part of evidence you're going to see a name, i would tell you that you can believe your eyes that it's a homicide, it's murder. you can believe your eyes.

and here's what you'll be able to see for yourself. you'll be able to see every part of what mr. floyd went through, from him first crying out, from his effort to move his shoulder to get his breathing to get room to breathe. you'll be able to hear his voice get deeper and heavier, his words further apart, his respiration more shallow. you'll see him when he goes unconscious, and you'll be able to see the uncontrollable shaking he's doing when he's not breathing anymore, the sheeeizu from oxygen deprivation, the you'll see the involuntary gasping of the body once the heart has stopped from oxygen deficiency, and you will hear are well aware when there was a pulse. you'll hear from a number of experts on the stand that putting a man in the prone position with handcuffs behind his back, somebody on his neck and back, pressing down on him, for nine minutes and 29 seconds, is enough to take a life.

you will hear that also. you're also going to hear from other experts who will point to the significant evidence of the excessive force that was put on mr. floyd's body. you'll be able to see, ladies and gentlemen, the road rash on the shoulders from where he's been pressed into the pavement from the weight on top, the stripped off layers of the skin. the same with his knuckles on his hand when he's pressing up trying to get room to breathe, the damage to his nose when his face is pressed to the pavement, trying to get room to breathe. the last 9 minutes and 29 seconds of mr. floyd's life, he was only alive for that period of time, but it matches the patterns of somebody who dies from an oxygen deficiency would be able to point to the video evidence, you'll be able to see for yourself. you're also going to hear and see certain evidence of what

this was not. this was not, for example, a fatal heart event. this was not, for example, a heart attack. you will learn that there was no demonstrated injury whatsoever to mr. floyd's heart as in a heart attack. you'll hear evidence that mr. floyd had an artery in his heart that was partially clogged. you will learn that there was no damage to mr. floyd's heart from an inadequate blood supply to his heart. that there was no clotting in his heart. you will learn that the medical examiner when he was examining mr. floyd's heart after he had died saw no evidence of heart injury and it was so unremarkable, he didn't even photograph the heart. you will learn that this was not what's called a fatal arrhythmia. that the heart beats rhythmically, and occasionally the heart gets out of rhythm,

and out of rhythm, the heart just may stop and the case of a fatal arrhythmia, you're going to learn frwhen a puerson suffe that, they stop and drop, instant death. you're going to see mr. floyd did not die an instant death. he died one breath at a time over an extended period of time. that's not at all the way one dies from a fatal arrhythmia which is instant death. this is not an instant death. you will also learn, ladies and gentlemen, that george floyd struggled with an opioid addiction. he struggled with it for years. you will learn that he did not die from a drug overdose. he did not die from an opioid overdose. why? because you'll be able to look at the video footage, and you'll see he looks absolutely nothing like a person who would die from an opioid overdose.

you will learn that opioid are tranquilizers and when they die from an opioid overdose, what do they look like, first and foremost, asleep, in a stupor, simply passed away. opioid overdose. they're not screaming for their lives. they're not calling on their mothers. they are not begging please, please, i can't breathe. that's not what an opioid overdose looks like. now, you will learn that mr. floyd had eleven nanograms of fentanyl in his system. they said that's a fatal amount. what you have to learn is something about tolerance. so for a person who has never been exposed to opioids or fentanyl, that may be lethal for them. but for others who have been struggling with it for years, they have a different tolerance level. you will learn, for example, that eleven nanograms is in the range that you will find in people who might receive opioid for cancer pain, for example.

mr. floyd had lived with his opioid addiction for years, and you can see on the video that his behavior is not consistent with somebody who dies of an opioid addiction. he didn't go into slumber. he was not nonresponsive. he was calling out for his life. he was struggling. he was not passing out. now, you're also going to hear from a forensic pathologist, dr. lindsay thomas. and what she does as a forensic path ol pathologist, she studies body tissues on autopsy, to try and determine the cause and mannerism of death. she did this over her 35 year career as a forensic pathologist. over that period of time, she had done medical examiner, forensic pathology work and some 37 minnesota counties of the 87 we have, seven counties in wisconsin. she had done over 5,000 autopsy, and determined cause and origin, and manner and cause of death in thousands of others.

she's semiretired now, and works as a consultant. still in the field of pathology. she was one of the persons who helped to train the current hennepin county medical examiner, dr. andrew baker when he was just getting started out in forensic pathology. here's where dr. baker and dr. thomas agree as to the manner of mr. floyd's death and i will show you the findings from dr. baker. when he lists manner of death for george floyd, homicide. now, i want to explain to you that when he uses homicide, it's not the way that we use it here in the courtroom. when the medical examiner says homicide, it simply means that the person died at the hands of another is what that means, and i will show you what list that shows is from in just a minute, and dr. thomas will testify about that, and it means he died

at the hands of another but you'll also learn that he listed a cause of death, cardio pulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdue, restraint and neck compression. i'm going to translate this into english. cause of death, cardio pulmonary arrest. every human being that has every been on the planet has two things in common with every other human being. number one is that they are born, they die of cardio pulmonary arrests all it means is that the heart stops and the lungs stop. it's simply another way of saying death. so cause of death, death. complicating that is involving law enforcement subdue, restraining him, and how the injury occurred, decedent,

george floyd, experienced a car owe pulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officers. in terms of the manner of death, where you see it says homicide, here would be the standard list of the choices medical examiners will look to in determining what the manner of death was. how the injury of disease leads to death is manner of death, and dr. thomas will talk you about this. five manners of death, natural causes, a heart attack is a natural death, you will learn. a fatal arrhythmia is a natural cause of death, you will learn. accident, a drug overdose is an example of an accidental death, for example. a car accident can be an accidental death. suicide, homicide, which is when they chose death at the hands of another or undetermined. if you can't tell which it is or what it is, you indicate undetermined. and here you will learn that

dr. andrew baker and dr. thomas determined among these possible manners of death, it wasn't natural, not accidental, not suicide, not undetermined, it was homicide. death at the hands of another. but that's not all that dr. thomas is going to tell you. she's going to tell you something about the limitations of pathology. that is looking at the tissues of persons after they have been deceased in trying to determine whether somebody died as a result of oxygen deficiency. there are limitations because in over half the cases where somebody dies from insufficient oxygen, and when you know they died from insufficient oxygen, there are no signs in the body tissues. she will give you the example, for example, of somebody who's smothered by a pillow, and they die that way. you may see nothing in the body tissues, but you know they died from oxygen deficiency because you know how they died. and here in this case, you will

hear that an autopsy, they didn't see any objective things in george floyd's tissues, but she says we have to look at all the evidence and we can see what happened at the scene, and we can see moment by moment that he had all the telltale signs of a perfect who's struggling and suffering from not receiving sufficient oxygen. she will say you have to look at all the evidence and, we'll show you that objective evidence as we go through. so finally, i want to talk to you about some of the evidence that you will hear. some of the facts that do not excuse this excessive use of force, but you will hear about them. we will tell you about them. for example, you will hear that george floyd was a big guy. he was over 6 feet tall. every police conduct witness we bring to you on the stand, every use of force expert will tell you that his size is no excuse

for any police abuse. you're going to hear obviously that he struggled with drug addiction, that he had high blood pressure, they'll talk about heart disease, and we will tell you about that heart disease that he had. what you will learn is that george floyd lived for years, day in and day out every day with all of these conditions until the one day on may 25th when he ended the 9 minutes and 29 seconds, and that was the only day he didn't survive. he went into that circle of 9 minutes and 29 seconds is the only day he didn't come out again. it's no excuse for what happened in the 9 minutes and 29 seconds. you will hear what happened earlier on the day on may 25th. you will be able to see how the police approached them in his vehicle over the fake $20 bill. you'll be able to see how when they approached his car, it came, within seconds they had pulled out their gun, were pointing it at his head, and

were using the foulest of language. you'll be able to see them get him out of his car, put him right away into handcuffs. you'll see him pat him down so they know he doesn't have any weapons, and not only that, you'll be able to hear george floyd when he approaches the squad car saying he is terrified to be put into that squad car. you'll hear him say, i think i'm going to die if they put me in there, i think i'll die if i'm put in that squad car. he was terrified. you'll hear him talk about that. he says he was claustrophobic, and he asked to count himself, let me count my way into the squad car, starts counting one, two, they man handle him, shove him into the car, and you'll see how he freaks out from that. you can hear him saying i can't breathe in the back of the squad card, and we will show you in the back of the squad card when mr. chauvin had his hands around mr. floyd's neck in the squad car and another, his arm and

elbow around his neck with mr. floyd's head here, where they were pulling him ouch the squad cars on the ground in the prone position when the 9 minutes and 29 seconds begins. you're going to learn at the time they put mr. floyd on the ground that way, there were five grown men armed police officers who were on the scene over a fake $20 bill. there were five of them there. mr. chauvin and his partner, the two officers who had shown up there earlier in the first place before mr. chauvin was there, and a member of the park police. there were five of them there. for a man who didn't threaten anybody, you will see committed no act of violence in any way, who didn't try to run away, and who was put in the prone position this way with five grown men, armed police officers present. none of that, ladies and gentlemen, we submit you will find to be an excuse for what happened in the 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

we're also going to want you to learn something about george floyd. george perry floyd, his family members call him perry because he was not simply just an object of the excessive use of force of police. he was a real person. and i want you to learn something about him. at the time that he was killed, he was 46 years old. he was a father, a brother, a cousin, a friend to many. he was originally from houston, texas, even before houston, he was from my original home state, north carolina, fayetteville, north carolina, before houston is where his family was from. he excelled in basketball and football. loved shooting hoops, even to the end, kept himself fit that way. he moved to minnesota from texas for a fresh start, and the rest of this you learn about him, his work as a security guard, lost his job when covid hit. he was a covid survivor, george floyd was. and he lost his job with his

employer, was forced to close given covid. but the point to all of this is that we want you to know something about who george floyd was as a person because he was somebody to a lot of other bodies in the world. so ladies and gentlemen, i'm going to sit down in a moment this morning. we're going to show you through the evidence that there was no excuse for the police abuse of mr. chauvin. we're going to ask at the end of this case that you find mr. k chauvin guilty for his excessive use of force against george floyd that contributed to taking his life, and for engaging in imminently dangerous behavior with a knee on the neck, a knee on the back for 9 minutes 29 seconds without regard for mr.

floyd's life. we're going to ask you to find him guilty of murder in the second-degree, murder in the third degree and second-degree manslaughter. thank you. >> mr. nielsen, do you wish to open at this time? >> yes, sir. >> you may. >> may it employees the court, counsel, mr. chauvin, members of the jury. a reasonable doubt is a doubt that is based upon reason and common sense. at the end of this case we're going to spend a lot of time talking about doubt. but for purposes of my remarks this morning, i want to talk about reason and common sense and how that applies to the evidence that you're about to see during the course of this trial. reason is an instead that wholly permeates our law, our legal system, and it forms the

foundation, and you will see and hear that repeatedly throughout the course of this trial. what would a reasonable police officer do? what is is a reasonable use of force? what would a reasonable person do in his or her most important affairs. what is a reasonable doubt? as such, reason dictates and necessitates how the evidence must be looked at, and analyzed in every seasoniingle case. and common sense is exactly that. it's common sense. common sense tells you that there are always two sides to a story. common sense tells us that we need to examine the totality of the circumstances to determine the meaning of evidence and how it can be applied to the questions of reasonableness, of actions and reactions. in other words, common sense is the application of sound judgment based upon a reasoned

analysis. and that's what this case is ultimately about. it's about the evidence in this case. the evidence that you will see in this case during this trial. it is, i agree with counsel for the state, it is nothing more than that. there is no political or social cause in this courtroom. but the evidence is far greater than ni9 minutes and 29 seconds. in this case, you will learn that the evidence has been collected broadly and expansively. minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension employed nearly 50 case agents, analysts and technicians to investigate this case. the federal bureau of investigation included at least 28 additional agents in their investigation. these agents combined have

engaged in an extensive and far reaching investigation. they have interviewed over 50 members of the minneapolis police department, including the officers who responded to the scene after mr. floyd was brought to the hospital. they interviewed members of the minneapolis police department command staff. they interviewed officers who oversee training and policy making decisions within the minneapolis police department. they have interviewed nearly 200 civilian witnesses in this case. some of these witnesses saw the entire incident. some who saw a portion of the incident, many who saw nothing, and some who had some piece of information to give to the officers. and others who had nothing. these agents interviewed the numerous medical personnel who interviewed, or excuse me, who attended to mr. floyd, and they

interviewed the numerous firefighters and paramedics who responded. agents executed approximately a dozen search warrants in this case to gather information. and in the end, you will hear a term throughout, i believe, this case, called the bates stamp number. the bates stamp system is a way for lawyers to keep track of the case, to make sure that we are working from the same set of documents, the same set of evidence. to preserve the integrity of the investigation. you will learn that we are approaching 50,000 bates-stamped items. so this case is clearly more than about 9 minutes and 29 seconds. as you all saw during jury selection, the witness list in this case neared 400 people. so how do we begin to analyze and organize this evidence?

i suggest that you let common sense and reason guide you. i propose that every witness you will hear from and every piece of evidence that you will see or hear during this trial can be assigned to one of four basic locations. cub foods, the mercedes-benz, squad 320, and hennepin county medical center. so let's start at the first, cub foods. you will learn that on may 5th, excuse me, may 25th, 2020, shortly after 7:00 p.m., mr. floyd and his friend maurice hall entered the cub foods located at 38th and chicago. while they were there, they ran into their other friend or mr. floyd's ex-girlfriend, shawanda hill, and he offered her a ride. you will hear from chris martin who is the store clerk at cub foods. mr. martin observed mr. floyd.

he watched his body language. he interacted with mr. floyd in this moment, and mr. martin formed the opinion that mr. floyd was under the influence of something. you will see the actual video from inside cub foods. mr. floyd did use a counterfeit $20 bill to purchase a pack of cigarettes. mr. martin realized this, and first, along with another one of his coworkers, named bill walter went outside to the car where mr. floyd, mr. hall, and ms. hill were sitting. mr. martin asked mr. floyd to come in and either buy the cigarettes, exchange or return the cigarettes. and you will hear from mr. martin that mr. hall and mr. floyd refused. you will hear that a short time later mr. martin went back to the car a second time. he went back to ask them again,

please come inside, give us the money, or return the cigarettes. and that second time, again, mr. floyd refused. so at 8:01 p.m., a second clerk from the cub foods named omar kamara called 911 to report mr. floyd. and during that call, mr. kamaro you will hear described mr. floyd as drunk, and that he could not control himself. he's not acting right. he's 6 to 6 1/2 feet tall. accordingly, minneapolis police officers thomas lane and alexander king were dispatched to the scene and arrived at 8:08 p.m. they were driving minneapolis squad car 320 and they faced parking southbound in the northbound lane of chicago avenue and were directed by store employees immediately to the second location, the

mercedes-benz. during this trial, you will hear evidence of what happened in the mercedes-benz in the 20 to 30 minutes prior to the police arriving. you will hear from mr. floyd's friends, shawanda hill, and maurice hall. this will include evidence that while they were in the car mr. floyd consumed what were thought to be two percocet pills. mr. floyd's friends will explain that mr. floyd fell asleep in the car. and that they couldn't wake him up. they kept trying to wake him up to get going. they thought the police might be coming because now the store was coming out, and they kept trying to wake him up, and in fact, one of these friends called her daughter, ms. hill called her daughter shakira prince to come and pick her up because they couldn't keep mr. floyd awake. at 8:09 p.m., officers lane and king approached the vehicle and

officer lane approached the driver's side of the vehicle, and officer king approached the passenger's side. during the course of this trial, you will see and hear the body warn cameras of these officers that fully capture the entire interaction with mr. floyd and his friends. you will see officer lane draw his service weapon after mr. floyd failed several times to respond to his commands to show him his hands. you will learn that that is an acceptable police practice. you will see the officers struggle with mr. floyd. to get him out of the mercedes-benz and handcuffed. you will see and hear everything that these officers and mr. floyd say to each other. the evidence will show that when confronted by police, mr. floyd put drugs in his mouth in an

effort to conceal them from the police. at approximately 8:10 p.m., officer peter chang of the minneapolis park police responds. he responds to the scene to assist officer's king and lane, and he helped in detaining the passengers. you will see officer chang's body warn camera, and you will hear his interactions. this becomes important as we learn about police practices because what you will learn is that when an officer responds to what is sometimes a routine and minimal event, it often evolves into a greater and more serious event. you will see surveillance videos near squad 320 from a local business called the dragon walk. that capture the actions and reactions of everyone present at that location, including

evidence of further concealment of controlled substances. during the course of the investigation two search warrants were executed on the mercedes-benz. the first on may 27th of 2020. the second, several months later, on december 9th of 2020. bca agents located various pieces of evidence during both of these searches, including two pills that later analysis by the bca revealed to be a mixture of methamphetamine and fentanyl. this is what's called a speedball. a mixture of an opiate and a stimulant. you will learn that these pills were manufactured to have the appearance of percocet. while standing next to the mercedes-benz, officer king and officer lane both asked mr. floyd what he was on. and he says he is on nothing.

officer keing and lane escorted mr. floyd to the third location, minneapolis squad 320. the evidence will show that as officers king and lane escorted mr. floyd to their squad car, a citizen by the name of charles mcmillion walked alongside them. he kind of joined them. and he was encouraging mr. floyd to cooperate with the officers. get in the car, you can't win. the evidence will show that mr. floyd and the officers began to struggle as they attempted to get him in the squad car. and you will learn that officers derek chauvin and his partner arrived to assist officers king and lane at 8:16 and 48 seconds, almost 8:17. upon their arrival, the first thing that officer chauvin sees is officers king and lane

struggling with mr. floyd. mr. chauvin asked the officers is he under arrest. yes. and then officer chauvin began to assist them in their efforts to get him into the squad car. you will see that three minneapolis police officers could not overcome the strength of mr. floyd. mr. chauvin stands 5'9", 140 pounds. mr. floyd is 6'3", weighs 223 pounds. you will learn that because of this intersection at 28th and chicago is considered a high crime area, the city ensolves, what's called the milestone video system, a camera that sits high atop a pole, and can surveil the entire intersection. when you see these videos pulled back from afar, you will be able to see the minneapolis police

squad car rocking back and forth, rocking back and forth during the struggle. so much so that it catches the attention of the 911 dispatcher jenna scurry. this was not an easy struggle. as the struggle continues, you will see and hear both what mr. floyd was saying to the officers and the officers' responses to him. mr. floyd does end up on the street, and appeared to continue to struggle to these officers so much so that they considered applying what's called the maximal restraint technique, it used to be called the hobble or the hog tie. mr. chauvin used his knee to pin mr. floyd's left shoulder blade and back to the ground, and his right knee to pin mr. floyd's left arm to the ground. officer king was placed below mr. floyd's buttocks and officer

lane was at the feet. and you will see and hear them continue to struggle with mr. floyd as he's attempting to kick. you will see and hear that a crowd begins to develop, watching and recording officers. initially, fairly passive. as the situation went on, the crowd began to grow angry. but here's what you will also see and hear. you will see and hear the conversation between the officers behind the squad car, the crowd is not aware of what they are saying and doing. you will learn that several bystanders, including donald williams, and genevieve hanson, they grew more and more and more upset with these officers. you've seen it this morning. but you will also see it from the perspective of the police officers. as the crowd grew in size,

seemingly so too did their anger. and remember, there's more to the scene than just what the officers see in front of them. there are people behind them. there are people across the street. there are cars stopping, people yelling. there are -- there is a growing crowd and what officers perceive to be a threat. they're called names. you heard them this morning, a fucking bum. they're screaming at him. causing the officers to divert their attention from the care of mr. floyd to the threat that was growing in front of them. at this location, questions emerge about the reasonableness of the use of force. and this will ultimately become one of the decisions that you have to make. to answer these questions, the bureau of criminal apprehension,

the evidence will show that the bureau of criminal apprehension investigated the minneapolis police department's training and policies. you will learn about things such as the authorized use of force, proportionality of force, excited delirium, defensive tack tech tactics, including prone handcuffing, maximum strength technique, the swarm techniquement you will learn about rapidly evolving situations and the minneapolis police department's decision making model. you will learn about crowd control. medical intervention, deescalation, procedural justice, crisis intervention, and the human factors of force, that is what happens to a police officer or any person when they are involved in a high stress use of force situation. and you will learn that derek chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over the

course of his 19-year career. the use of force is not attractive. but it is a necessary component for policing. the evidence will, again, demonstrate strike tthat the mi bureau of apprehension delivered two searches, in the second search of squad 320, agents recovered several piece of partially dissolved pills. you will learn that these pills were again, analyzed, were again shown to be consistent or similar to the pills found in the mercedes-benz and that they contained methamphetamine, and traces of fentanyl. moreover, these pills contained the dna and saliva of george floyd. which leads us to our final location. hennepin county medical center. the evidence will show that officers made two calls for

emergency help. those calls were within one minute and 30 second of each other. the first call, officers called for paramedic to arrive code to because mr. floyd had a nose injury. he was bleeding from the nose. that occurred during the struggle. mr. floyd banged his face into the plexiglass partition of the squad car. you will see the blood evidence in the squad car. that first call came at 8:00, 20 minutes and 11 seconds, the second call is what's called a stepped up call or code 3 call, meaning get here as fast as you possibly can. that call was made and placed at 8:00, 21 minutes and 35 seconds. you will learn that paramedics arrived on scene at 8:27 and 18

seconds. just 19 minutes after king and -- officers king and lane arrived. within six minutes of it being called a code three, and they did what they referred to as a load and go because of the crowd. they came, they picked up mr. -- rather than attempting to resuscitate him or treat him on the scene, they loaded him into the ambulance, and they drove to a location several blocks away to begin their rhesesuscitating efforts and officer thomas lane accompanied them for part of that time. you will learn ultimately that mr. floyd was transported to the emergency department at hennepin county where efforts to save mr. floyd were made at the direction of dr. bradford longingfeld, again, he took important tests. he ran blood samples, and blood gas samples. he took certain very important

pieces of information. you will learn that later that evening, mr. floyd was pronounced dead. the evidence will show, then, that dr. andrew baker of the hennepin county medical examiner's office conducted the only autopsy of mr. floyd. and you will hear of several interviews that dr. baker had with law enforcement where he discusses the cause and manner of death and what that actually means according to what he saw present in mr. floyd's body. and some of this evidence is extremely important to the final determination of mr. floyd's cause of death. the medical findings include things such as the blood gas test that was taken at hcmc that revealed mr. floyd had an exceptionally high level of carbon dioxide. dr. baker found none of what are referred to as the telltale sign

of asphyxiation, there were no bruises to mr. floyd's neck, either on his skin or after peeling his skin back to the muscles beneath. there was no hemorrhaging, no evidence that mr. floyd's air flow was restricted and he did not determine to be a positional or mechanical asphyxia death. at the time mr. floyd was in the hospital, ephemeral blood draw was taken. that blood draw was analyzed by a lab. the results of mr. floyd's toks kolg screen -- toxicology screen revealed fentanyl and methamphetamine among other things, and it will be important to know the difference between femoral and

methamphetamine. the autopsy revealed many other issues, including coronary disease, an enlarged heart, what's called a para ganglioma, a tumor that secretes adrenaline, swelling or edema of the lungs and the state was not satisfied with dr. baker's work, and so they have contracted with numerous physicians to contradict dr. baker's findings. and this will ultimately be another significant battle in this trial. what was mr. floyd's actual cause of death? the evidence will show that mr. floyd died of a cardiac arrhythmia that occurred as a result of hypertension, his coronary disease, the ingestion of methamphetamine and feintal

a and adrenaline flowing through his body. at the conclusion of this evidence, you will be instructed as to the law, the elements of the offense, and the court will give you detailed instructions on what you must find to convict mr. chauvin of these charges: but when you review the actual evidence, and when you hear the law and apply reason and common sense, there will only be one just verdict, and that will be to find mr. chauvin not guilty. thank you. >> members of the jury, we're going to take our morning recess at this time until about 11:15. i want you to keep in mind that these breaks we try and keep as much as we can to time, but if bathroom needs and other needs are important, weather conditions expand it a little bit. >> and we have just heard opening statements from both the defense and prosecution in the murder trial of george floyd accusing officer derek chauvin.

he is on trial today, although you can see already that the defense in some ways is trying to put george floyd on trial in this case. there was a lot of interesting new details that we learned in listening to these opening statements because these opening statement are in many ways a road map for the trial ahead. they're a preview of the arguments that each side will make of the witnesses that they will call and so we learned a lot of new details. i want to bring in jeff pegues who has followed this case from the beginning, who has been on the ground in minneapolis since george floyd was killed.r when the first thing really i thought in listening to all of this is it's an argument of cause of death versus use of force, right? >> reporter: yeah, that's a very good point to highlight. and we heard the defense attorney outlining what will be their case, as you noted. raising concerns or questions

about george floyd's drug use. he also said derek chauvin did exactly what he was trained to do. we'll have to see about that, because that because what is also interesting here is that the police chief in minneapolis is testifying, being called to testify by the prosecution, but i think that is a really interesting point here that you would have the police chief at risk of his reputation among rank and file police officers in that department testifying against derek chauvin, essentially, saying, hey, this is not the kind of tactic we train for, and raps you know, there was training for that type of knee to the neck but for nine minutes? i don't know about that. >> right. you saw the defense attorney try lay that out, big i don't remember is what george floyd was called growing up, in he was a great athl