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Chauvin Murder Trial; Prosecution Delivers Closing Argument. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 19, 2021 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

STEVE SCHLEICHER, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: He isn't given the opportunity to do that. That's not resistance, that's compliance. At least an attempt to comply.

Force must be reasonable. It must be reasonable at the point it starts, at the point it ends, and all points in between, officers are required to reassess the situation, to reevaluate the situation, to take in the information and react to it.

The defendant didn't do it. The defense has made the argument that the crowd justified defendant's use of force. Like the blame should fall on the bystanders for displaying concern over a man's life. What? That this was a distraction and there was some concern, the defendant doesn't appear too concerned.

It wasn't the bystanders fault. A 19 year police veteran, a field training officer with over 800 hours of training not be distracted by the comments of a 17-year-old or being filmed by some civilians. There's a policy about filming. They understand that civilians can film them, right.

They know that, it's right there. This isn't something new or earth shattering or -- or even particularly noteworthy. Sergeant Stiger, you recall him from LAPD, he used to patrol on Skid Row. He talked about people throwing rocks and bottles. This is -- they have a phone -- phones.

They're expressing concern. They're not doing anything. This is not justification for -- for an assault, for murder.

Defense suggested in their cross examination that reasonable minds can disagree, right, or that some of the witnesses don't line exactly where the force began or what exactly should have (ph) done. But don't get caught up in that. Don't miss the forest for the trees.

Consider a testimony as a whole. Officer after officer after officer got on that stand, raised their hand and told you, the chief of police right, that this conduct, 929, violates the use of force policy. Violates the department's core values.

It violated his duty of care. He failed to render aid. Remember Commander, now Inspector Katie Blackwell, who was in charge of all training looked at this and said I don't even know what this is. I don't know what this modification is.

This isn't how they train. This --- these aren't the rules. Lieutenant Mercil looked at this and he said without equivocation (ph), not an MPD trained tactic. It is not. We don't train our people to do this.

You could present 1,000 hypothetical situations, you could talk about what didn't happen all day long into next week; but when you talk about what did happen on that day, at that time, that's what they said, use of force unreasonable.

Supervisor Sergeant Pluger, the force should have ended right after Mr. Floyd was on the ground. His supervisor said that. Lieutenant Zimmerman, the oldest serving -- or I should say the most years of service on the Minneapolis Police Department, longest serving -- correct myself -- longest serving member of the department, what did he say.

He looked at this; he said this was totally unnecessary. Totally unnecessary. A use of deadly force. Not reasonable. Only reasonable force is authorized. Sergeant Stiger, expert witness, Los Angeles Police Department. He's trained thousands of police officers. He looked at this, this is objectively unreasonable force.

Professor Stoughton, former police officer, University of South Carolina law school professor, this use of force was unreasonable, it was disproportionate and it violates national standards. The experts agree because the force has to be reasonable when it starts, it has to be reasonable when it ends.

And what is happening? If you look at the bottom and George Floyd is handcuffed and on the ground, right.

[12:05:00]

What is he saying? He's saying I can't breathe 27 times within the first four minutes and 45 seconds of this encounter, he's saying that. And the defendant continues to kneel on his back and neck, continue the dangerous restraint.

George Floyd says into the restraint at 8:22:24; my stomach hurts, my neck hurts, anything -- everything hurts. The defendant heard that. He heard those words. Was George Floyd resisting when he was trying to breathe? No. No. And the defendant heard it and he acknowledged it and all he did was mock him. It takes a lot of oxygen to complain. That's what he said. He takes a lot of oxygen to say that.

When George Floyd in his final words to the defendant, please, I can't breathe. I can't breathe, crying out for help by the man -- to the man in uniform. The defendant stayed right on top of him. He ignored it. Continued doing what he was doing, facing the crowd, grinding his knee, twisting his hand.

I think he's passing out, Officer Lane says. Officer Kueng can't find a pulse. Now, the greatest skeptic of this case among you, how can you justify the continued force on this man when he has no pulse. No pulse. Continued the restraint, continued grinding and twisting and pushing him down and crushing the very life out of him.

It wasn't too late. He could have rolled him over, performed CPR. But no, he continued past the point of finding a pulse, past the point where the ambulance arrives, past the point where the EMTs get out of the ambulance.

What's the goal? What's the plan here? What are we trying to accomplish? This was a counterfeit $20 bill allegedly. What is going on? Why? Why hold him that long, past that point, past that line that was crossed.

No, unreasonable force. Unreasonable. Not proportional, excessive. It violated policy, it violated the law, it violates everything that the Minneapolis Police Department stood for. It is not lawful. We use that phrase awful but lawful.

Right, the force that is not lawful. It's -- it's just awful. So the defendant is guilty of second degree murder. He's guilty of third degree of murder. He is guilty of second degree manslaughter. All of them. Because this was not a justified use of force. You cannot justify this use of force. It's impossible; not if you apply the rules, not if you apply the standards, that a sworn officer to protect and serve, but a sworn officer that oath that they take.

You know at the beginning of my comments, I talked about George Floyd's life. How he was surrounded by people who cared about him, surrounded by familiar faces, people he could look out to in the crowd.

But at his death he was surrounded by strangers. They were strangers but you can't say they didn't care. You can't say that. These people were randomly chosen from the community -- people from the community randomly chosen by fate and they were coming from different places and they were going to different places and they had different purposes.

All of them random members of the community, all converged by fate at one single moment in time to witness something. To witness nine minutes and 29 seconds of shocking abuse of authority to watch a man die.

And there was nothing he could do about it because they were powerless they were utterly powerless because even they respected the badge.

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Even seeing this happening, they tried, they cried out at first and pointed out hey, you can get up off him. It became more and more desperate as they watched this go on and on and on and there was nothing -- there was nothing they could do. All they could do -- all they could do was watch and gather what they could.

Gather their memories, gather their thoughts and impressions, gather those precious recordings. And they gathered those up and they brought them here and they brought them here and they got up on the stand and the testified and they bore witness to what they saw. They bore witness to this outrageous act and they told you about it and they gave you what they had, their thoughts, their impressions, their memories. They gave you those precious recordings so you can see this -- you can see this from every single panel (ph).

They gave that to you. There were powerless to do anything but that. They gave it to you. Randomly selected people from the community, you get a summons in the mail and here you are, all converged on one spot.

(Inaudible) our system, we have power. The power actually belongs to us, the people. And we give it to the government in trust for us to hold and to use appropriate. But sometimes we take it back. Sometimes when something is really important we reserve those decisions for ourself.

The state, we have power. We cannot convict the defendant. The judge has power but he cannot convict the defendant. That power -- that power belongs to you. You have that power and only you have the power to convict the defendant of these crimes and in so doing -- and in so doing declare that this use of force was unreasonable, it was excessive, it was grossly disproportionate.

It is not an excuse for the shocking abuse that you saw with your own eyes. And you can believe your own eyes. This case is exactly what you thought when you saw it first, when you saw that video. It is exactly that. You can believe your eyes.

It's exactly what you believe it. It's exactly what you saw with your eyes. It's exactly what you saw with your eyes, it's exactly what you knew. It's what you felt in your gut. It's what you now know in your heart. This wasn't policing, this was murder.

The defendant is guilty of all three counts. All of them. And there's no excuse. Thank you.

CAHILL: Members of the jury, we're going to take a 20 minute break. And just for your information, we'll also take a 20 minute break after the defense argument before the states rebuttal and the final instructions.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: A 20 minute break now in the trial of Derek Chauvin. A very important moment in the trial. He betrayed the badge and everything it stands for. That, one of the many powerful lines in the closing argument just presented by one of the prosecutors, Steve Schleicher.

Let's get straight to our panel. Our CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Laura Coates. Also CNN law enforcement analyst, Charles Ramsey, the former police commissioner in Philadelphia and police chief here in D.C.

Laura Coates, as a former prosecutor, about 103 minutes Mr. Schleicher spoke in a very common language, approachable language to the jury. Your impressions?

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: He's doing an excellent job. Remember, he began this notion by talking about saying George Floyd's name, announcing his full name, telling about his parents, the day he was born and going through to those last moments of his life, having moments that evoked such sentiment.

The idea of a crowd of strangers watching, no one he recognized but by the uniform and the badge he implored, quote, Mr. Officer, talking about the duty of care that was owed to a human being, not a super human but a human being. All it took was compassion and oxygen.

All of this treading a theme throughout the entire closing argument and that ending there when he said this case was exactly what you thought it was.

[12:15:00]

That completely, in my mind which is a wonderful way to close it by saying essentially to the jury, look, the defense did not change your mind. This case began with the horror that you thought. The bystanders were totally powerless.

And what did they do. They respected the badge just like George Floyd and they gave those precious videos over to you who does have the power to do something.

There was a portion of it, John, that of course people would say, that's a little bit long and long winded and boring about going through the elements. That's where cases are won. That's where trials actually lead to convictions because if you don't lead that jury to water and make them drink and walk them through piece by piece how the witness and certain evidence ties together, the jury will go back to deliberate and say now how did they prove that element.

What did depraved heart mean again? What did Mr. Tobin actually testify to? They got to have those notes there, checking off element by element by element how the prosecution prove their case.

KING: And Chief, I think what was striking to Laura's point is Mr. Schleicher started with a person, mentioning George Floyd, showing the picture of him. His mother holding him as a young man.

They she -- then he did take time to go through the technical aspects of the law, remind people of the sometimes very complicated medical testimony. But then back the personal at the end, essentially saying as he yielded the floor, you can believe your eyes. And he kept using the term common sense, not nonsense.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCMENT ANALYST: Yes, I really did like the way he put that, common sense not nonsense as he went through the defense and their arguments. And I think he did a very good job of raising each and every one of them and shooting them down.

And a very, very good use of graphics and the video. He didn't just show an entire nine minutes and 29 seconds. He selected those key areas to prove his point. And I think that was very powerful in and of itself. You know one graphic being a police officer, of course it caught my attention. But toward the end where he showed all the different members of the police department, including the police chief and what they said about that use of force, all of them from his own department.

I thought that was pretty powerful because again, you know, well you know he's trained or policy or whatever and -- and that's just nonsense as the prosecution said. It's just not true.

You know one thing that really struck me, they keep showing that photo of him with his knee on Floyd's neck and he's got his -- his -- his resting on his -- on his hip, very nonchalant. And if you look at that picture and you see his -- his shirt, his badge is actually twisted. Just as twisted as he was when he did that.

And I thought that was ironic that -- and that's the first thing I saw when I looked at that picture.

KING: And Laura, this is in some ways, the trial of one former police officer about the death of one man in one county in America, Hennepin County. But it's also a national moment and a global moment of reckoning; we remember the death of George Floyd and what it did to this country.

Police departments not only in Minnesota but around the country are on alert as this jury begins to deliberate because they're worried about unrest. We may break from this conversation in just moments to go to a prayer service.

The family of George Floyd joining the family of Daunte Wright, a young man in the Minneapolis suburbs who was shot and killed by a police officer just last week, which is why it is -- we all know the history here.

The evidence in this case is fairly overwhelming, nine minutes and 29 seconds alone that video, fairly overwhelming. But the prosecutor, Mr. Schleicher, understands the history as well, which is why listen here, he was talking to the jury and he says this is not an anti police case, actually this is a pro police case. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHLEICHER: And what the defendant did here was a straight up felony assault. This was not policing. It was unnecessary. It was gratuitous, it was disproportionate and he did it on purpose, no question. This was not an accident. He did not trip and fall and find himself upon George Floyd's knee and neck.

He did what he did on purpose. And it killed George Floyd. That force for nine minutes and 29 seconds that killed George Floyd. And he betrayed the badge and everything it stood for. It's not how they're trained; it's not following the rules. This is not an anti-police prosecution. It's a pro-police prosecution.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Laura, walk through the strategy there as a prosecutor trying to win over if all the defense needs is one, trying to win them over.

COATES: It's for the very reason that in (inaudible), John, they ask them about their views on Black Lives Matter, about Blue Lives Matter because they are aware of the psychology in the United States of America that gives and extends a benefit of the doubt to police officers.

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Nobody wants to believe that a police officer gets up in the morning, puts on his or her uniform and badge and intends to kill someone via torture as it was described by Dr. Tobin in this particular case.

And so having that out front to say look, you're not -- you're not essentially going against all police officers here, it's not the state of Minnesota versus police, it's the state of Minnesota versus Derek Chauvin.

It is a noble profession to be a police officer; this was not one of those noble police officers. It reiterates how then tended the pole (ph) -- that 10 foot pole from the police chief, from the use of force expert, from other law enforcement who said he is not one of us. He did not perform what he was supposed to do.

He did not extend the duty of care. He withheld it and why, because he could. Because he had the badge. Because he was overwhelming and in a sinister way, arrogant. These are the phrases that the prosecutor was using here to make the comfort -- the comfort level of jurors rise exponentially to say look, you are not prosecuting all officers.

You're prosecuting somebody who is an officer in name only that day and threw away the badge and all that it stood for. Why? Because he would tolerate the audacity of a concerned crowd who thought that they could actually compel him to do his job.

And you know what's different here, because Derek Chauvin did not take the stand, John, who is there to combat or undermine this sinister arrogance that they have talked about. Who is there to essentially defend him and explain away, no one. All you have is the prosecution played.

The idea of, uh-huh, I guess it takes a lot of oxygen to be able to speak. That dismissive, aloof, condescension is what the jurors will remember and that is not a noble profession.

KING: And it will be left to Mr. Nelson -- Eric Nelson, the defense attorney when we come back. The trial's on a quick break. We'll be back in just moments for that chief as it plays out to try to counter that.

A very persuasive -- again, 100 minutes long -- 103 minutes long from the prosecutor Mr. Schleicher. But Mr. Schleicher has lessons throughout the trial, of course. And we've talked about this over the last several weeks about the back and forth, back and forth and he knows what's coming.

So he addressed it in his closing argument to the jury that they're going to tell you Mr. Floyd was a bad guy. They're going to tell you there was a struggle initially. They're going to tell you he was on drugs, this, that.

But Mr. Schleicher, I thought, when we talked a bit about the story, but I want to hear it in his words saying -- asking the jury, just apply (ph). They're going to say there's a reasonable doubt here, I'm going to ask you, use your common sense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHLEICHER: -- proof beyond a reasonable doubt, it certain is a high standard. It's the highest standard. It's a standard that the state has met here. And the state does not need to prove its case beyond all doubt, it does not need to prove its case beyond what I'll call an unreasonable doubt, not required to prove beyond an unreasonable doubt.

An unreasonable doubt is a doubt not based on common sense but based on nonsense and you're not required to accept nonsense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Again, an interesting sort of prebuttal of sort, going through the expert witnesses the defense brought, Chief, trying to say you're going to hear after this a whole bunch of excuses, don't buy them.

RAMSEY: Well, it is. And you know, police aren't judge and jury. I mean your job. If a person commits or is suspected of committing a violation of the law, take them into custody and bring them before the appropriate authorities that ultimately will make that judgment and you see it right now.

It's not to be done on the street. There is no street justice that should be applied in any instance at all. And I could just real quickly go back to something that I think he may -- the prosecution made, is a very important point.

This is a pro police trial. It is a trial for every decent member of law enforcement in the country. They get out there every day and do their jobs and do it properly and that right now is very embarrassed and -- and disgusted with what they've seen in this Derek Chauvin trial.

It is pro police. And even though we're in a dark place, if we can get past the short attention spans that we all tend to have and stay focused on this, there is light that's there. I mean we can rebuild, we can reform, we can do all the things that are needed to do to get on track.

And I think this is an opportunity for that to take place, I really do. And I just hope that people see this as not a reflection of all police but certainly one Derek Chauvin is one too many. KING: That's an excellent point. Chief Ramsey and Laura Coates are

going to stand by with us. Again, we're in a quick break on the trial of Derek Chauvin. The prosecution has just finished its closing arguments. The defense closing argument will be just moments away. Stay with us.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Any moment now we'll be going back to the court room. The defense will be presenting its closing argument in the trial of former officer Derek Chauvin. He, of course, charge in the death of George Floyd. Minneapolis and cities across the country right now bracing for the Chauvin verdict and any potential protest that verdict could bring.

From Los Angeles to Atlanta, San Francisco to Philadelphia; city officials are prepping, including have additional officers and personnel available and canceling discretionary days off for officers. Again, that goes coast to coast.

Let's go live now. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is in Minneapolis where Minneapolis of course, outside that key spot there preparing. Adrienne.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, as they prepare for what will happen once the closing arguments are done on both side, they're worried about defense -- or excuse me -- they're worried about the verdict.

Many of the people here in the community that I've talked to, they tell me anxiety is building and the anxiety is heightened when they drive around downtown and see images like what you see behind me. Members of the National Guard on every other corner throughout downtown providing security.

Later this week on Wednesday, Minneapolis public schools will return to remote learning. This just after reopening.

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