Chauvin is Fucked
I don't envy Chauvin's defense team task at all, given the horrendous circumstances of George Floyd’s murder. Putting on my armchair lawyer hat for a bit (note: I've never done any murder trials and likely never will want to) I can think of only a few things to do differently. Some lines of questioning were very puzzling to me, like when Nelson chose to repeat all the insults that Donald Williams hurled at Chauvin (e.g. "You called him a bitch, right?"). I have no idea what the point of that was, maybe it was to show that a bystander was hostile to Chauvin which encouraged Chauvin to keep his knee in place? But it seems objectively reasonable to insult someone when you see them in actively killing someone. Bizarre.
Given the facts of the case, Chauvin’s attorney appears to have done an admirable job overall. Use of force by police is a field that is actively litigated, and there is no shortage of experts willing to testify on behalf of police officers, so I have to assume that the experts the defense hired were the best they could find. And they were pretty bad. Fowler tried to argue that Floyd possibly died from being exposed to the carbon dioxide exhaust coming from the patrol car, even though there was literally no evidence of this in any of the autopsy reports, and Fowler didn't even know if the car was on.
The damning aspect of the case is just how long Chauvin had his knee and bodyweight on Floyd's neck and shoulders. His defense team tried to introduce a number of justifications through other witnesses, and those largely amounted to the fact that Floyd was combative and panicking, and Chauvin and the other cops were facing an increasingly hostile crowd of bystanders, and so it was especially important to use force to maintain the situation. Chauvin chose not to take the stand, which prevented him from explaining more directly exactly why he did what he did, which is probably what could've helped him the most.
But it also would've opened him up to a brutal cross-examination:
π: Did you have your knee on his neck for 8 and a half minutes?
Δ: Yes
π: Did you hear him say he couldn't breathe 26 times?
Δ: Yes
π: Did he become completely unresponsive about 4 minutes after you've had your knee on his neck?
Δ: Yes
π: Did you keep your knee on his neck after he was unresponsive for an additional 4 and half minutes?
Δ: Yes
π: Did medics at the scene tell you he had no heartbeat?
Δ: Yes
π: Did you keep your knee on his neck after you were informed he had no heartbeat?
Δ: Yes
π: Do you feel threatened by individuals who are unresponsive, handcuffed, and have no heart beat?
Δ: ….yes?