back with me now as we wait for the trial to resume, laura coates, charles ramsey. laura, can i give with you? one, we don't know who the witness is going to be today. could be significant. they deliberately kept the names private until they appear on the stand. but at this point, four days in, what do you believe the prosecution has successfully established regarding floyd and chauvin? >> well, they've established that there was a duty of care owed to somebody who was in police custody. george floyd was clearly in police custody. they established that a use of force was applied at a time when george floyd was refusing to go into the back of the squad car. but they also demonstrated at some point in time a clear demarcation is when force was no longer necessary, no longer proportional. that is at the point in time he was no longer trying to be moved from the car. he was handcuffed and prone. he was unconscious and offering no resistance. they brought this in through a variety of witnesses and those bystanders to those who were actually on the scene to be the testimon

laura coates, charles ramsey. more to come. thanks very much. >>> one of the two virginia police officers who drew their guns on, pepper sprayed a black army lieutenant during a traffic stop has now been fired. body cam footage, other video from the december incident has now been released. police say they pulled the army officer because it appeared his vehicle did not have a license plate though there was one taped to the rear window. and also the police say that it had dark tinted windows. cops considered it a high risk stop and approached with guns drawn. that temporary plate was taped there in a statement released sunday, officials from the town of windsor say an internal investigation has been conducted. additional training implemented in january. the statement does not mention when the officer was terminated and the other officer involved is still employed by that police department. the army officer who was pulled over, he is now suing both of those officers. >>> still to come, in just hours, president biden will meet with

police chief and former federal prosecutor laura coates. laura, can i begin with you here. what is the legal standard as you see it here? but, of course, the circumstances of this different from george floyd. that was a knee on the neck for several minutes. this was a decision, a deadly one, in the heat of the moment. what is your view of the possibility of charges here? >> it would stem from negligence and issues surrounding manslaughter because, of course, most of the body of law that you have available when it comes to charges of murder, in most jurisdictions, are about intent. minnesota, as we've learned from the derek chauvin trial and everyone has become barred in minnesota through this process of law, the idea you can have unintentional-based murder charges. as long as you intended to perform the act that led to the death you need not have intended the death. so recklessness. negligence can all come into form here. again, it's not just about what happened in that precise moment but what happened leading up to it. the decision to enter into the foray. the fray, excuse

let's bring in laura coates, chief charles ramsey is with us as well. former chief of the d.c. department. laura, you mentioned this earlier during the one of the breaks the idea that as we start the third week of testimony on this monday, very important for the prosecution not only to continue with this case but in some ways to recap its case. >> it's so important. you want to be building up consistently. remember the theories of primacy and recentsy. bury the bad facts in the middle. . remember, this witness is meant to build off of the testimony of not just the off duty firefighter, a bystander who wanted to render aid and cpr, it builds off the pulmonologist and the idea of a cardio pulmonary arrest, the heart and lung stops, the forensic pathologist, talking about why she would not have put asphyxia on there. and why the size of george floyd's heart would have impact or not at all because of the restraint rendered by the police officers. there was a key moment here to pay attention to. it was the moment when the defense counsel asked the cardiologist that if -- what was th

laura coates, a former federal prosecutor and charles ramsey, the commissioner in philadelphia. laura coates, the jury hearing repeatedly from the most senior officer currently on the minneapolis police force saying he was trained every year, and they are told in that training putting a suspect down prone is dangerous, putting a knee on suspect's neck can be deadly, that you must use those efforts, that use of force only in the most extreme of circumstances, and lieutenant zimmerman repeatedly saying from the video he's seen he's seen no such circumstance, that mr. floyd was in custody, he's no longer, resisting, compelling testimony. laura, as you come in, the judge is excusing the jury for the day. the first week of prosecution testimony is ending for now. the jury is going home for the weekend. let's listen to the judge say good-bye to the jury. >> let's shoot for 9:15. thank you, have a good weekend. >> just wanted to make sure there were no last housekeeping measures there, the judge letting the jury out early today so they can have some time on this easter weekend. laura c

laura coates, this medical testimony, part of the prosecution build, the medical examiner, we believell come next. your perspective on how the prosecution is building its case? >> they're doing a great job of it. they're building off and corroborating from prior testimony. you're seeing and hearing from the bystanders first, talking about law enforcement. they pretty much covered the idea of this was an unreasonable amount of force to use. now they're in that substantial causal factor and they began with that dynamite testimony yesterday of the pulmonologist who described with great detail that george floyd was struggling to the point he tried to use his body, his fingers, his knuckles, his face to lift himself. now you've got this particular forensic pathologist whose job it is to determine and evaluate the cause and manner of death, corroborating, showing through autopsy photos not published to the general public the way in which the pulmonologist's -- bruises on george floyd's body and ultimately concluding that even with the underlying medical conditions she says he died as a resu

laura coates, thank you. ura is going to stay with us because we want to shift focus to the trial of the former-minnesota police officer in the killing of george floyd. >>> derek chauvin's attorneys called their first-medical expert, today. we'll discuss which, if any, of his arguments could influence jurors when we come back. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! all good not everybody wants the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 'cause i do things a bit differently. wet teddy bears! wet teddy bears here! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ keeping your oysters business growing has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo so what's go

laura coates, charles ramsey, please hang on. trial is going to begin momentary. >>> we do have this breaking news in to cnn. we are learning that the mastermind behind the largest ponzi scheme in world history, bernie madoff has died in prison. cnn's chief business correspondent christine romans is back with me. enormous rerempercussions of th for his own family. tell us what you know about the circumstances of his death? >> sad and tragic story. the bureau of prisons tells us he was serving a sentence for 150 years. recently he asked to be let out because he was near end stage renal failure. we're told he died of natural causes t. life of this man, just stunning the extent of the deceit and the lies, going back maybe to the beginning of his career in the mid 1970s. he styled himself as the wizard of wall street. really his name is synonymous with fraud and the biggest fraud we've ever seen. the ponzi scheme he perfected here so widespread. it brought in people like kevin bacon and kira sedgwick and former colleague larry king w

federal prosecutor laura coates is with us and mark o'meara ra.senting derek chauvin, i assume you would have advised him to not testify? >> it's truly his decision at that moment in time. i got to tell you that there was virtually nothing that chauvin could have done to help himself in this case. i don't believe -- the only thing -- though i might have scripted it, he could never have gotten through it. if he actually went out there and somehow apologized, somehow explained that he was based on his training somehow came up with an explanation, that might have convinced this jury to give him a lesser charge, but there was nothing he could have done to increase the chances of acquittal, and i think he would have been devastated on cross-examination by the prosecutor because there's no way that he can defend, nothing other than the 9 1/2 minutes. so i think it was the right decision under the circumstances. >> gloria, do prosecutors typically want to get a chance at cross-examining a the defendant? >> normally prosecutors are chomping at the bit to

thank you, laura coates. just an update. the judge just issued a ruling that he decided that there was no jury misconduct. this following accusation of that via the defense counsel. that is his ruling. we're going to continue to listen in and monitor the trial. as we do, we're going to take a short break and we'll be right back. get...get mom. [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning app with 24/7 support when you need it the most. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. it's an important time to save. with priceline, you can get up to 60% off amazing hotels. and when you get a big deal... you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal. feeling sluggish or weighed down? it could be a sign that your digestive system isn't working at it's best taking metamucil everyday can help. metamucil psyllium fiber, gels to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down. it also helps lower cholesterol and slows sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so you can feel lighter and more ene

thank you. >>> back with us as well now, cnn senior legal on list, laura coates. do you have any sens how the course of this, and how will -- tough or easy would it be for prosecutors to deliver that verdict for the wright family? >> well, you know, the definition of justice, unfortunately, for so many victims families in this country, is not what the laws can provide. especially when it comes to sentencing. but having said that, even without the universal definition of justice, anderson, there are -- there is a charge, now, against this officer. and as i have said, before, because of the pace of this actual charge. it could mean this is only the initial charge. i remind people that another officer in the minneapolis area, just a couple years ago, mohammed noor was also charged with second-degree manslaughter but they also had a third-degree murder charge attached to it. based on the same-factual predicate of this unreasonable risk that was taken. and the unreasonable risk here is when you have created an opportunity, where you could actually, consciously cause so

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let's bring in laura coates and charles ramsey for what we heard. me about what we saw play out in the courtroom? >> prosecutors have to provide all information in advance of trial. they can use their case in chief when they present all the witness testimony to really drive home the point the prosecutoral strategies that they want to pursue. once that happens, the defense takes the stand. they are now in control. the defense. so what this is all about is now the prosecution has an opportunity to do what is called a rebuttal case. meaning, they can now try to undermine the strategies and theories that have been promoted by the defense. but there are some constraints there. you can't use your rebuttal case as a prosecutor to introduce what you're calling new evidence. but there are things you could have raised in your own presentation of evidence. unless the defense has some basis to say it was a brand new theory and now you're doing this. the reason why, judges don't want to give prosecutors two bites of the apple. they don't want redundant testimony

let's bring in laura coates, former federal prosecutor and minnesota native. that is very relevant here. charles ramsey, former police commissioner in d.c. as well as philadelphia. let's begin with you. you were a former federal prosecutor. how you would close this case out if you were making the closing arguments today or the rebuttal? >> you use the star witness. the 9:29 to drive the point home of what everyone saw happen. that not the officer that owed a duty of george floyd, no the only did he substantially cause the death of george floyd by refusing to take his knee off the neck, and i do mean refusing to do so, even in spite of all of the begging from bystanders and even an emt for him to remove his knee from his neck still he persisted. you bring home the point by the idea of law enforcement officials that say this was not abiding by training. this is the opposite of training. there was a duty of care owed even if if you yourself did not believe you were the cause of his physical duress. you still had a duty to perform cpr, to take his pulse, to try to

back with laura coates and joining us is criminal-defense attorney, mark o'mara. laura, we heard both very technical testimony from the cardiologist, today, and obviously the very emotional testimony that floyd's brother gave. i wonder, do you expect one to have a bigger impact on the jury than the other? >> well, you know, what's odd here, anderson, how odd is it a family member were able to testify if they were not an eyewitness, an expert witness? minnesota has a unique doctrine that essentially says, a murder victim, you are able to call a witness that gives some character evidence about that person to bring them to life as, not somebody, who is the phrasing is just bones. the idea of humanizing the person for the jury and this is very, very important, of course, because we've heard from his girlfriend, at the time, before he passed away. we heard her testimony. we heard about the different people, who were bystanders. even one person during the video shouting, but he's a human being, though. and this consistent theme of trying to make sure people know that, a

laura coates, this was an emotional start to this morning. we didn't know much about his girlfriend. but we learned about their relationship. dating back to august of 2017. she described how they met, their courtship, when they had on and offs in their relationship. how he was george floyd, how he was as a father. and also the drug use and the drug addiction that they both struggle with. what stood out to you the most in that testimony? >> well, all of that -- particularly the idea of the prosecution strategy. people may wonder to themselves, why would the prosecution use the time and case and its own witnesses to essentially cast george floyd in what we perceive in the negative light. drug use, opioid addiction, possibly a counterfeit bill at one point, the idea of whether he was under the influence. it's because as the prosecutor, you want to present and address and resolve the bad facts. you don't want to have the defense be able to say, hey, jury, why didn't they tell you about this? here are the things they don't want you to know. sprink

mark o'meara, laura coats. also cnn law enforcement charles ramsey, former top cop in d.c. and philadelphia. welcome to all of you. laura, i want to begin with the testimony from derek chauvin's supervisor, his sergeant. him saying -- he said in no uncertain terms that the force applied by chauvin, the knee in the neck, should have stopped when floyd was no longer resisting. this contradicts the defense to this point saying that he was just following training. how critical was that testimony? >> this was extraordinarily critical to have somebody who is in law enforcement, his supervisor, to really debunk this myth that he was perpetuating so far, which is that you are able to use force even after any force is being used against you. remember, this is about the idea of whether an officer can use a reasonable amount of force to stop whatever perceived threat is against them. once that perceived threat is essentially neutralized, then you have to reassess and act differently. so the idea of not only the use of force, which may have been justified initially, you have to go all t

let's start with one, laura coates. chauvin's supervisor, the sergeant, saying explicitly that chauvin should have stopped using that force, the knee on the neck, when floyd stopped struggling. this undermines, contradicts what has been the defense argument here that he was sumply following his training. how significant is that to hear it directly from that police sergeant's mouth? >> it is so significant. you're not talking about a bystander and what they believe police protocol should be. you're not talking about an off-duty firefighter who believes she understands what police protocol should be. or even a 911 dispatcher who is looking at the scene and wondering, is something off here? you're hearing it from the supervisor, somebody who has more training, more expertise, more experience. and is in a position of power over somebody like derek chauvin to say that, look, officers have the ability to use force. they are absolutely able to use force. but you must stop the use of force when you no longer are needing to rest

i'm going to bring in cnn's senior legal analyst laura coates, a former federal prosecutor. laura, thanks for joining us this evening. we have a lot to talk about. this is the fourth night of protests in brooklyn center. curfew is now underway. you see what sara is showing us on the screen. so much anger and frustration on the streets. is the city doing everything it can, do you think, to calm this unrest? what do you think of how they're handling this? >> well, you know, part of the problem is that there is -- the reason that the george floyd killing had such a visceral reaction is because it was so illustrative of so many other cases. you're seeing it happen now with daunte wright. to be illustrative again. it showcases this trust gap. even when you have an officer who has resigned, even when you have an officer who is now charged, there is still this trust gap and a lot of skepticism about whether justice will prevail in the form of a criminal conviction. and that seems to have eluded so many different officer involved cases. what you're seeing i think is in part that frus

laura coats, thank you. s because we'll shift focus of the former minneapolis police officer. derek chauvin's attorney called their first medical expert today. we'll discuss which of any of his arguments can influence jurors when we come back. r me? what about me? one for me? you mean us? what about me? and me? how about us? yeah, how about us? great question. wait, can i get one in green? got one for me?! hey, what about me? what about us? is there an ev for me? ev for me? us? what about me? me? for me? ♪ ♪ (dog whimpers) i think the sketchy website i bought this turtle from stole all of my info. ooh, have you looked on the bright side? discover never holds you responsible for unauthorized purchases on your card. (giggling) that's my turtle. fraud protection. discover. something brighter. >>> derek chauvin's attorneys today called the first medical expert witness to rebut the prosecutor's case as they sought to place the death of george floyd on floyd himself. omar jimenez has details. >> reporter: day two o

i want to bring in laura coates, cnn senior analyst, former federal prosecutor. this is all building up to something. especially as we think about the testimony heard on friday when lieutenant zimmerman said it was totally unnecessary in terms of use of force he saw that now officer chauvin used. what is the prosecution building at this point by laying out the nuts and bolts of the training? >> i mean, try telling the person who wrote the policy, who's had an experience in every different essentially aspect of being a metropolitan police officer in minneapolis, imagine trying to tell him that he doesn't know what the training is. remember the tactic used by the defense, lieutenant zimmerman, you're a veteran officer, uh you've been on the force so long, sir, perhaps you're out of touch with what use of force should be used and what it looks like to be a patrolling officer, a little bit of condete dedsh. >> we've gone back to the questioning. we'll pick back up. >> code of ethics, is that right. >> yes. >> and the code of ethics is contained within the policy manu

want to bring in laura coats. and mark o'mara. you heard sara talk about the medical expert. how effective was he? >> he was absolutely the most compelling witness we've had so far and that includes the emotional testimony from the age ranging from 9 years old to somebody half a century older. you had all of the law enforcement officials. no one expected this as opposed to a medical expert and autopsy to be this captivating. his methodical approach, cadence, rhythm of information the way he presented in digestible pieces. if you didn't know what a pulmonologist was, you were following along with the demonstratives and you were understanding watching through the lens of an expert who was pointing out the manipulation of handcuffs. identifying the four factors that contributed to the loss of oxygen that sara talked about. the demonstration of torture. this image that's indelible in my mind, anderson, of a man reduced to trying to breathe by trying to use his knuckles, his finger, his shoulder all to no avail and still to have the knee on the neck and the pressure to 91 points o

laura coates, as always. again, we're going to take you to the courtroom as soon as the first witness today takes the stand. >> that's just minutes away. >>> plus, an associate of republican congressman matt gaetz is expected to strike a plea deal in a federal sex trafficking investigation. one lawmaker is calling on gaetz who is also facing sex trafficking allegations to resign. i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer. ♪ ♪ i feel free to bare my skin yeah, that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand nothing on my skin, ♪ ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ achieve clearer skin with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way it's my moment ♪ ♪ so i just gotta say... ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to f

laura coates, thank you, appreciate your time. good to see you. i'll see you tomorrow. >>> protesters taking to the streets now in brooklyn center night after night, outrage over the deadly police shooting of daunte wright. the latest in a long line of black men and women to die at the hands of police. i want to bring in now cornell west. you know cornell west, he's a professor of philosophy at harvard university. professor, how are you doing? >> my brother, my prayers are with the wright family. my prayers are with the floyd family, but we've got to remember what mamie till told us when she gave that funeral over her precious son, which is i don't have a minute to hate. i will pursue justice for the rest of my life. so the question is what does a gener genuine love for black people, a genuine care for black people look like in this situation. and there's a number of different responses to that, but all of us have to come to terms, and we're not just talking about black folks, just as a human being who has a deep care and concern about a people wh

laura coats, charles ramsey, stand by, we have a lot more regarding the chauvin case. we will come back to that. >>> also breaking this morning, this story, multiple police officers have been shot during a police chase in georgia. police say the early morning chase ended in carroll county. this is along the georgia-alabama border. you can see there. the georgia state patrol initiated a chase with multiple agencies joining that pursuit, the sheriffs officer did not immediately provide information on what led to this chase. it's also still unclear how many officers exactly are hurt here. we do know it is multiple. we are told that the scene is now contained. there is no longer a threat to the public. we will keep following this story as it develops. >>> still to come this hour, virginia police officer has been fired as to the investigation of the force used in a traffic stop involving a black uniformed army leiutenant. we have more on the latest in that case next. >>> despite record vaccinations here in the u.s., cases in the state of michigan are surging, especially amo

. >> let's discuss what we have heard today, cedric alexander, and laura coates. it was not derek chauvin, it was something else, and this medical expert, a former medical examiner in the state of maryland, he is saying it's all of the above but it's not officer chauvin in his view. >> well, you know, as a prosecutor you look at this and how they have pretempted all of these things, and it's not the first time we are hearing about drug use and it's not the first time we are hearing about any of these conditions and the prosecution did a great job of preemtinge powerful expert testimony to counter what is being said right now, and he's saying during as opposed to saying the restraint actually caused, and words are really important to jurors, and there's an idea that is being planted, this seed, that he happened to die because of the underlying conditions during a police restraint. it's like an afterthought. it's not a winning strategy when we know we have nine minutes of video and we have all the law enforcement police officers that have testified and we heard from

. >>> with me, laura coates, cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor and charles ramsey, former philadelphia and washington, d.c., police chief. laura, this is a jury trial. jurors are human beings. that testimony yesterday, deeply emotional from eyewitnesses who watched this unfold close up. i picture 61-year-old charles mcmillian breaking down into tears. knowing how courtrooms work, what impact does that testimony have? >> extraordinary impact. the idea of having over the course of several days some of these jurors have gone from never having seen the 8-minute and 46-second video we thought was out there. then you have testimony from a former firefighter. you have people trying on the stand as a mixed martial arts fighter. a 911 dispatcher saying she thought something was wrong. multiple underage children. the youngest being 9 years old. and then somebody more than half a century older than her breaking down on the stand. can you imagine what the trauma was like for those victims as well? and the question lingering in these jurors' mind is for all of these different witnesses

laura coates, thank you so much. we really appreciate having you on and of course we'll have more of the trial of former police officer derek chauvin after a quick break. stay with us. [typing sound] i had this hundred thousand dollar student debt. two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in debt. ah, sofi literally changed my life. it was the easiest application process. sofi made it so there's no tradeoff between my dreams and paying student loans. student loans don't have to take over for the rest of your life. thank you for allowing me to get my money right. it doesn't happen often. everyday people taking on the corporate special interests. and winning. but now, the for the people act stands on the brink of becoming law. ensuring accurate elections. iron-clad ethics rules to crack down on political self-dealing. a ban on dark money. and finally reducing corporate money in our politics. to restore our faith in government. because it's time. for the people to win. is now a good time for a flare-up? enough, croh

let me bring in laura coates and charles ramsey. i'm going to say in layman's terms this seemed a little bit meticulous for some of us. i'll include myself in this. as if they were kind of beating around the bush on something with this witness. can you walk us through what we were watching? >> so here's the strategy of prosecutors. while many people watching it, they think to them sefldz, okay, we get the point. you're belaboring something here. they have to be very meticulous and not leave any stone unturned. they have to make sure that they're accounting for even the most obscure reference that may be taking a note by a juror that says they really get to the meat of the matter? they have to be exhausted even if it for the viewing audience it feels like they're belaboring a point. however, this particular witness was there to talk about this crisis intervention. >> i'm going to interrupt. we have to jump back to minneapolis right now. let's jump in it. >> thank you, your honor. sir, how you are ploipd? >> with the city of minneapol

i want to bring back in laura coates. i know you were just hearing, and getting some of these developments as well. as paula laid out, this may not happen, but the fact that this is being considered, this is being discussed, this is a big moment here. >> it's a huge moment, the idea of federal investigations, part of what happens is that you're trying to get your bearings as the investigator, as the prosecution. you're seeing what allies you may have. how you're going to get testimony and evidence in. the second you're able to identify that cooperator, you're able to apply pressure in order to have them have reduced charges they must plead to, but there is always a hook. and the hook is, you scratch our back, we'll scratch yours, the scratching the back here seems to be providing information about the colleague congressman matt gaetz. and so the idea of us now learning about this, demonstrates that the cooperation may be an issue here, what type of evidence, to what extent he'll provide it, the timeliness of that provisio

wright. >> laura coats, charles ramsey, thank you. laura will stay with us because we have more to talk about including the closing witnesses, george floyd's botherother taki the stand and bernie sanders and his assessment and criticism of the president's infrastructure spending plan mostly over what is infrastructure and what isn't. we'll be right back. hold my pouch. ♪ trust us, us kids are ready to take things into our own hands. don't think so? hold my pouch. you can framebridge just about anything. and we have. spacemen. the top of kilimanjaro. a portrait of the artist. jojo. a million custom framed pieces and counting. you can framebridge just about anything. not everybody wants the same thing. that's why i go with framed liberty mutualnting. — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 'cause i do things a bit differently. wet teddy bears! wet teddy bears here! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ in the romo household we take things to the max oh yeah! honey, you still in bed?

. >> so i want to bring in now cnn senior legal analyst laura coates. laura, good evening to you.e've heard from multiple police officials and trainers saying that chauvin violated policy, that his use of force was not a trained restraint. but we also saw witnesses contradict each other. how does that resonate with the jury? >> well, you have to concede the fact that the defense is going to be able to land a couple punches, be able to score a couple points. but actually landing punches and the ability to deal a real blow is what's at issue here. they have not done the latter because they still have not gone to the meat of the matter here. of course no one is contesting, don, that an officer is allowed to use a reasonable amount of force to subdue and control a suspect. but there is a moment in time the prosecution must prove and they've done a great job so far from when it goes to the reasonable use of force to excessive use of force, to going over to criminal assault. we're getting more and more there, the more witness testimony, the more law enforcement testimony that says this

la laura coates, and police chief charles ramsey. laura, for someone unfamiliar with court proceedings they might think why would the prosecution bring up the fact that george floyd had a drug problem, had an opioid problem. the prosecutors know the defense would bring that up down the road. walk us through what you see as how and why the prosecutor is presenting this evidence in this way. >> it is a very prudent prosecutorial strategy. you don't want the defense to be able to down the road introduce new things that might cast your victim in a bad light. things about opioid addiction although we know, john, it's viewed very differently in the world today in 2021, opioid abuse is not the vilifying factor that perhaps it once was, in a court proceeding. especially since you talk about it being, one, as a result of pain control and medication related, you also have the idea here of saying, do you ever want a defense attorney to say, why didn't the prosecution tell you about this? what didn't they want you to know? you know what they didn

the judge specified -- i want to get laura coates' view on this. of testimony that he considers outside of self-incrimination and that is what maurice hall observed of floyd in the car falling asleep apparently suddenly based on what we heard earlier as relevant to the broader case. laura coates, you heard the judge compare that potential testimony from hall to it can we already heard in the trial from the cashier in the store that was right there on the street saying that floyd appeared high. the judge made the point, that didn't incriminate the cashier for saying that. this would not incriminate maurice hall if he were to testify to something similar. do you agree with that point of view? >> the idea here is whether the jury can compartmentalize this information. whether the jury is going to be able to parse out different aspects of this. the judge is concerned and the prosecution and the defense is concerned, frankly, for this particular person is whether or not somebody who asked particular questions can invoke the right against self-incriminat

. >> trial to resume any moment now, and with us is laura coates and former d.c. police chief, chief charles ramsey. laura, let me start with you. this is always a tough call for the prosecution. how many witnesses do you bring and how many outside experts do you try to bring to back up your testimony? your take so far on the effectiveness or lack there of when it comes to sergeant stiger. >> you don't want the jurors thinking this is all an inside job, some sort of coming together because they are trying to antagonize for personal reasons, and we are talking about the best practices and what was known to officers in a place like minneapolis would be universally known in other places as well, and what we are seeing here, john, is the use of force continuum, this graduated use of force over time but we are seeing clear lines in the sand, nobody is disputing an officer can use reasonable force to try and retrain a suspect resisting. there's a clear line in the sand when it goes from reasonable force to excessive force to kr criminal force. other officers are saying i

also, with us, cnn legal analyst and former-federal prosecutor, laura coates. laura, describe, based on your experience, if you can, the impact on a jury. it's a jury of 12 human beings, right? when they see this up close, through that body-camera footage, right? this is a man, dying, slowly. when they hear him calling for his mother, in that instance there. how do juries react to that kind of thing? >> remember, during the voir dire process, jim, some of them actually said they had never seen seen the original, 8-minute-46-second video we all thought it was confined to. now, seeing that for the first time just two days ago. you are seeing all this, you are hearing the testimony of teenagers. somebody as young as 9. imagine, if the 61-year-old is breaking down like that on the stand. what is the trauma that is being associated with the 9-year-old, the now 18-year-old, the 19-year-old also talked about this, the firefighter, as well. the mixed martial arts fighter. and these words are going to be churning around, in jurors' minds. and the question that's going to

>> i want to get more legal perspective from senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor laura coats and former democratic chair tom perez who is significantly for us the former head of the civil rights justice department and former assistant attorney general. the case, the chauvin case is still far from over and sentencing is in eight weeks. what do you expect the prosecution, defense to do to prepare for that and what legal tools do they have at their disposal? >> the next step is those aggravating factors you spoke about just now, anderson. the idea of three things, the power dynamic of having it be an officer to civilian and happened in front of children. george floyd being particularly vulnerable at the time this actually happened, as well. all of those contribute to the prosecution asking the judge to go above what's called the presumptive sentence of 12.5 years on the highest charge. sentencing guidelines essentially say look, we have a range of possibilities even when you have a maximum of 40 or 25 or 10 years, the judge has a lot of discretion in there and people that don't

laura coats, thank you. >>> in a moment more reaction to the trial. the family for george floyd will join us and benjamin crump sharing what he believes jurors will take away from today's testimony and whether the defense did enough to create doubt in the mind of jurors and matt gaetz moments ago smoke to a woman's group as he faces a federal sex trafficking probe. he told the group quote i have not yet begun to fight. this is a key house committee announced a new investigation today. details when we continue. especially with their sensitive skin. that's why we always look for new tide hygienic clean free. it removes the visible and invisible dirt. it's got to be tide hygienic clean free. >>> the defense attorney for derek chauvin spent much of the day pressing medical experts about other factors that could have contributed to george floyd's death. while heart disease could be a contributing factor, he said quote it was the stress of that interaction that tipped him over the edge. want to get perspective from their attorney benjamin crump. i'm wonderi

i'm joined by former federal prosecutor and cnn senior legal analyst laura coates. i wonder, as we look ahead to the defense presenting its case as soon as later today, what is their best case, in your view? how do you expect them to approach this? >> remember what the strategy of a defense counsel is, is to really preview and see what the prosecution has done and then try to chip away at it. you do it through cross-examination, but also in your actual case in chief as the defense. remember, they're not required to put on a case, but i think they'll be compelled to do so given the weight of at least all the expert testimony. they can't do a lot of damage on the bystanders' vantage points but where they'll try to go is on the use of force, looking at whether it's more of a subjective interpretation than the use of force experts and the law enforcement training officers have led the american people to believe. it's about the interpretation by the officer who needs to be flexible. the second area is going to be about the substantial causal factor of death. they'll have

i want to go straight to our analyst here, cnn senior legal analyst laura coates, and senior law enforcement analyst, charles ramsey, former commissioner of the philadelphia police. laura, just that end there, the back and forth between the questions from the defense attorney and the prosecution with the training instructor who trained in use of force, it was pretty remarkable. >> it was, erica, and this all goes down to this question of reasonableness and one of the things that was mentioned was a case called graham versus connor which is a supreme court case from many years ago that unanimously held, look, you judge the reasonableness of an officer's use of force through the renz of not you and i, not hindsight but from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene but you must take into account the severity of the crime alleged, whether the person is resisting arrest in some form or fashion and whether the person actually posed a threat, so you're seeing a discussion generally about this reasonableness. you've heard from multiple law enforcement officers who have said this is not w

i bring in joey jackson and former prosecutor laura coats. thank you for joining us. what a week in this trial. laura, you're a former prosecutor. let's look at the prosecution's case. the medical examiner fefg heart disease and drugs may have been factors but it was chauvin's use of restraint and neck compression that caused him to rule the death a homicide. does this make the case here? >> this is extraordinarily compelling. it's not just this in a vacuum. you're talking about the accumulation of the evidence over the weeks of the trial. and yesterday you had the very compelling testimony of a pulmonologist. if people didn't know what that was then, they know now. it was used as a the extra, they built up on every particular witness. they've corroborated, complemented, they've allowed the medical examiner, for his testimony to be all the more clear to clarify what is men by cardiac arrest. it was not this term, heart attack. to demonstrate how the last minutes of george floyd's life actually looked. and they had the benefit they normally don't have. usually an m.e. o

. >>> joining me now to discuss all to expect this day and this week, laura coates cnn legal analyst. laura, good to have you back on. what struck me is the prevalence of police testifying in effect against the former police officer derek chauvin. today, for instance, we could hear from the chief of police of minneapolis, i don't know exactly what they will say on the stand, but i want to release a statement said soon after this took place last year. said the following, mr. george floyd's tragic death was not due to a lack of training. the training was there. chauvin knew what he was doing. the officers knew what was happening. one intentionally caused it and the others failed to prevent it. this was murder, it wasn't a lack of training. that goes right at what the defense argument is here, requirement, that this is a part of training, he was just respond, et cetera to the crowd and to the threat from floichltd other cops say no how well are they making that case? >>. >> reporter: as many will say i heard enough, the video was enough. i saw the 9 minute 29 video, that was enough. pros

let me get back over to laura coates as we've been listening more to the testimony. laura.o resuscitate george floyd. we hear now that they worked on him for 30 minutes. and then declared him dead. what did you make of that with that final question from the prosecutor about asphyxia? >> that's way very key moment. not only was he under cardiac arrest for 30 minutes but the likely possibility that caused that cardiac arrest. the doctor is very careful to say is hypoxia, loss or depravation of oxygen and what does that mean? as iffisma. asphyxiation. we have a link here through the testimony now that suggests the person who ultimately declared george floyd dead and tried to save his life in the e.r. was eliminating possibilities based on what the paramedic has not tell him, a very telling moment is the idea of, hau, if it drugs had been an issue, if overdosing had been suspected, if the person's behavior indicated that that was a possibility, wouldn't the paramedics have said that? in his experience, yes, they often offer that information. the absence of that information allo

and former federal prosecutor laura coates. laura, we learned earlier today the washington county prosecutor hopes to have a charging decision for officer potter by tomorrow. what do you expect her to be charged with? or do you expect her to be charged? >> well, if anything, i was going to say if anything, it would be based on partially the statements made by that police chief who has now resigned. i was a little surprised that the police chief made a conclusion at that press conference. my immediate thought was well, that will be factored in by the prosecution in this particular case, knowing that we have to judge things normally by the supreme court standard by the reasonableness use of force as speck aspect of it. the reasonableness use of force aspect of it and what other officers are saying so they already planted the seed in the mind of the prosecutor but it does not foreclose prosecution because you have a whole body of law based on negligent homicide and as long as you are negligent, you could appreciate a risk or you a

cnn senior legal analyst laura coates joins me as well as charles ramsey. d to have you both here. laura, we've heard a lot of things, talk of his dheart condition, drug use. carbon monoxide is a new one. does it stick? >> no, it's a new one. on cross, if you remember the prosecution got that expert to confess that he had no scientific basis to determine that there was carbon monoxide poisoning. there was nothing to indicate the epa levels were above that for george floyd and didn't even know if the car was on, jim. had no idea about whether exhaust was actually emitting. this is one of those grasping for straws. really the self-inflicted wound for the defense because you want an expert to put their best foot forward. you don't want their credibility to be undermined by trying to have these ridiculous, absurd conclusions that they cannot back up. >> yeah. credibility is key here, charles, right? laura made the point the other day that the jurors decide who's most credible in terms of expert witnesses and eyewitnesses. so fowler, this retired medical examiner

we do have laura coates standing by. that is the first defense witness. i have to ask you, laura, when you saw that video of the encounter between that officer and floyd in 2019, did that help the defense substantially in your view? >> how could it, jum? w jim, when he survived that encounter. deadly use of force was not used. the officer said i'm not going to shoot you. people can take issue with the way he said it and the way in which officers speak during the interactions can be disturbing to people. he survived that encounter. he was not put upon with somebody's knee to his neck for 9:29. it strikes a cord, i'm sure with the jury to say here's the difference between what happened when somebody was a passenger in a vehicle and officer demanded the person get out of the car and what he eventually complied with and you contrast that with what happened on street deriving from an allegation of a counterfeit bill. this is the only attempt to undermine the character of george floyd and can -- >> okay, laura. >> hold that thought. brief conversation with the j

joining us now, cnn legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, laura coates. criminal defense attorney, mark. and former police chief of the wash d.c. metro police force. laura, how damaging was the testimony by the police chief? >> extremely damaging. this comes, after more -- other -- other officers, law-enforcement officers, who are all extending a ten-foot pole now showing to the jury that, look, an officer is entitled to use force. but there is a clear line in the sand, anderson, for when it goes from reasonable use of force to, now, criminal assault. and that line apparently seems to be where the training stops. and, of course, where there's no longer force being used to resist these officers. this is chief of police, who is making the statement. he is somebody, who has a lot of experience in law enforcement in minneapolis. along with training. there is no way to undermine the fact that, if he said it's not part of the training or the policies. combine that, with other testimony, it is extremely damaging to the defense. >> chief ramsey, how unusual is it

joining us now laura coats, former prosecutor, charles ramsey and former police commissioner and policehief. thanks to both of you. laura, maybe you could help us summarize as a former prosecutor, yourself, the prosecutor's closing arguments. you point out they have three acts. the first is eyewitnesss to floyd's death, sort of recount the events of that day. go to use-of-force experts as well as fellow officers saying it was an excessive use of force and finally check it to his death. how do they tie that together to the jury in closing arguments? >> you can easily do it when you think of the words of the 18-year-old who took the video who said i faulty badly but i did not intervene to do more to save his life. then i look over at this officer and it was his job to do so that's where you begin. there was a duty of care owed as a public servant as a police officer. there was a duty of care owed when he was in the custody of police to not use an unreasonable amount of force, particularly when the person was compliant and unconscious and once they realized he was in physical duress, they