The defense attorneys of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin tried to get the judge in the case to acquit him stating that the prosecutors haven’t proven their case. The judge denied the defense’s request.
According to The Hill, in the trial for the police officer who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis last May, the Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, has denied Chauvin’s defense team’s request Wednesday to
have him acquitted of the charges he is facing. The defense attorneys have claimed that the prosecutors have failed to prove that the former police officer’s actions last May caused the death of Floyd.“When viewing a set of facts in a light most favorable to the state, they could give their greatest weight to those witnesses who establish that the use of force was unreasonable and that the cause of death was positional asphyxia, or lack of oxygen, however, the state wishes to characterize it, but, most importantly, that it was caused by the defendant,” the judge stated.
“That is viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state. It is clear that that has been established, and so, based on that standard, the motion for judgment of acquittal is denied,” said Judge Cahill.
Earlier this week, a medical expert who testified in defense of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, says he believed that George Floyd‘s death was the result of heart disease and agreed with a prosecutor on Wednesday that Floyd should have been given immediate first aid.
Former Maryland medical examiner, David Fowler, appeared to dispute at least some of the findings of Dr. Andrew Baker, Hennepin County’s chief medical examiner, who ruled Floyd’s death a homicide caused by Chauvin and other officers restraining Floyd in a way that starved his body of oxygen.