Chauvin's attorney just lost the plot.

[madaboutharry]

“9:29....ignores the time that came before.”

This is total bullshit. It is actually insulting.

[TwilightZone]

1. Not sure why it would be surprising.

He can't focus on the 9:29 or his client loses. He has to work with what he has, and that's very little, and distract from the obvious.

[duhneece]

3. And yet he mentions 9 29 over

And over again.

[TwilightZone]

5. I think he's trying to confuse the jurors.

Presenting contradicting statements is a common strategy. Trump's entire presidency was based on it.

[WHITT]

2. Even Worse

he referred to the 9 minutes and 29 seconds as "a moment".

[Siwsan]

4. It probably won't work but I half expect an ineffective counsel complaint to be filed.

To my uneducated observations, he's been pretty much floundering, from the get go.

[Shrike47]

7. A friend of mine with 30 years of criminal appellate practice says he's doing a good job.

It’s hard to be a defense attorney, much harder than people think.

[TwilightZone]

10. Especially when there's almost nothing to work with.

It helps to look at the legal team's actions in context. They have to work with what they have, which isn't much.

[greenjar_01]

11. I think he's doing a good job and a lot of people here are just unable to view his performance

objectively. Reminds me of the people who were clowning Jose Baez and he skillfully took apart the case against Casey Anthony, to be honest.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. He's doing a fine job; people just don't understand what his job is.

[madaboutharry]

13. I disagree.

I think everyone here knows what his job is. That doesn't mean that we aren't offended by a lot of what he is saying.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. I see a lot of posts that imply that they think the defense's job is to "prove" something, and a

negative at that -- Chauvin didn't kill George Floyd, that he's not racist, that he's not a terrible person. His job is not to defend Chauvin's actions, although he certainly can do so. It's establish doubt about whether these actions were unauthorized by law. If one juror decides this is reasonable use of force for a police officer, that's all it takes.

[Siwsan]

21. But he is not pleading this case to other attorneys. He's pleading it to a jury of 'lay-people'.

Big difference.

I anticipate a thorough dismantling by the prosecution.

[magicksmom]

6. I agree and would add

That his continuous replay of George Floyd suffering while trying to paint what the officers are doing to him as reasonable is helping the prosecution.

[world wide wally]

8. He attempted to lower the bar as much as possible in his opening statements... and he's

living up to it.

[brewens]

9. They keep missing one important thing about the bystanders (crowd). The guy that keeps calling

Chauvin bro. Chauvin is exactly the kind of guy that would be infuriated by that alone. They are supposed to bow down and address him as officer! That could have had a lot to do with why Chauvin wouldn't let up on Floyd. Probably best that the prosecution didn't get into that. I suppose that would have been objected to as speculation.

[live love laugh]

14. Floyd "injured [his own] nose during the "struggle"..." WTF

[Rorey]

16. I couldn't take it anymore

I think he said the word "reasonable" about 50 times in five minutes and I had enough.

[sop]

20. A "reasonable officer" would have simply removed a handcuffed Floyd from the police car,

sat him down on the sidewalk, away from moving traffic, allowed him to calm him down while they waited for the arrival of the paramedics who had already been called because he was injured. That's what the arresting officers did earlier; they took Floyd from his vehicle, handcuffed him, sat Floyd down against the building and de-escalated the situation.

An "unreasonable officer" roughly pulled Floyd from the police vehicle, forced him from a kneeling position to the pavement, face down, twisted his arms to cause pain, kneeled on his neck and back for 9:29, then kept his knee on Floyd's neck and back for three minutes, even after he lost consciousness, exhibited no pulse and stopped breathing.

[oasis]

17. Gaslighting the jury. nt

[WHITT]

18. Also

He flat-out lied when claiming that because the prosecution presented evidence that Floyd's blood had a 98% oxygen level, there was no carbon dioxide level, that also meant that he could not have died from lack of oxygen.

Having a 98% oxygen level in your blood is MEANINGLESS if someone is restricting that blood flow to your brain.

What an idiot.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. No. He was making an example that you have to look at the whole picture.

What he said was, he COULD argue that because Floyd's blood had a 98% oxygen level, there was no carbon dioxide level, that also meant that he could not have died from lack of oxygen BUT he wouldn't because it wouldn't be true. What he was saying was, "I could twist all this scientific stuff to fool you, but I won't, I'll speak plainly to you and you can trust me."

(I'm assuming you're referring to when he made this comment near the beginning of the closing statement. I've missed a few parts here and there, so maybe he brought it up again and actually said it.)

[WHITT]

24. He Later Went Back And Fixed It

wonder if somebody else on the legal team somehow got a message to him that he effed up?

[BlueJac]

22. I can't watch it anymore...

Just tired of the bullshit from Nelson. What happens, happens.

[duhneece]

23. George Floyd didn't die because his heart was too big but

Because Chauvin’s heart was too small
Boom!