Ex-officer s trial in Floyd s death shows courtroom tactics rep-am.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rep-am.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Associated Press Created: April 08, 2021 05:40 AM
George Floyd died of a lack of oxygen from being pinned to the pavement with a knee on his neck, a medical expert testified at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial Thursday, emphatically rejecting the defense theory that Floyd s drug use and underlying health problems were what killed him.
“A healthy person subjected to what Mr. Floyd was subjected to would have died,” said prosecution witness Dr. Martin Tobin, a lung and critical care specialist at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital and Loyola University’s medical school in Illinois.
Using easy-to-understand language to explain medical concepts and even loosening his necktie to illustrate a point, Tobin told the jury that Floyd s breathing was severely constricted while Chauvin and two other Minneapolis officers held the 46-year-old Black man down on his stomach last May with his hands cuffed behind him and his face jammed against the ground
11:15 a.m.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson cross-examined Dr. Lindsey Thomas, a forensic pathologist called by the state to explain George Floyd s autopsy.
Nelson asked Thomas to explain the term complicating used in Dr. Baker s report. The way I would think of it in this setting is both things were present, that there was a cardiopulmonary arrest and that it was due to law enforcement subdual, restraint and compression.
Thomas said she agreed that Floyd s heart was slightly enlarged upon autopsy, but that it s difficult to use averages because every person is different.
9:25 a.m.
The state called forensic pathologist Dr. Lindsey Thomas as the first witness of the day Friday. Thomas has worked with the Hennepin County Medical Examiner s Office and helped to train Dr. Andrew Baker, who performed Floyd s autopsy.
Expert: Lack of oxygen killed Floyd, not drugs
By AMY FORLITI, STEVE KARNOWSKI and TAMMY WEBBER - Associated Press
In this image from video, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell questions Dr. Martin Tobin as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides Thursday in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd.
MINNEAPOLIS George Floyd died of a lack of oxygen from being pinned to the pavement with a knee on his neck, a medical expert testified at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial Thursday, emphatically rejecting the defense theory that Floyd’s drug use and underlying health problems were what killed him.