Just looking at a few bits about the trial it sounds like the Judge is being pretty nice to the prosecution letting them put an MMA guy on the stand to use the term "blood choke" etc. about him having his knee on his neck area like that.
Just curious what people think the jury is likely to do here. In a non-politically charged case (if the person who died was white) I would say there is almost no chance he was convicted of even manslaughter with what the toxicology report shows with the high level of drugs and a lack of air not causing it. Haven't really read enough about it to know how easily a prosecution expert trying to say his knee and some weight being on that area was a cause also and if that could easily be dismissed as a real contributor to the cause of death by the defense medical expert. The other reason I say no conviction would happen in a non-political case is their actual training in that department called for using that to restrain combative people being arrested (at least when he was trained and maybe was still in there at the time of the arrest but I am not sure on that).
I do think this officer was one of those arrogant idiots we see quite a bit as police officers in recent years. Worked quite a bit with some officers in past years and you had a few idiots but not nearly the numbers you see now imo. Just for appearance reasons if nothing else he should have got his knee off his neck area when he was saying he couldn't breathe whether he thought or knew the guy was overdosing on some swallowed drugs.
Having said all that I think because this is such a politically charged case the jury is going to find him guilty of that 3rd degree murder charge or some manslaughter charge just to appease the mob and will say the prosecution medical expert convinced them he wouldn't have died and could have been saved if not for his knee being on his neck like that and that he should have known that. While the actual truth is that could never be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Just curious what people think the jury is likely to do here. In a non-politically charged case (if the person who died was white) I would say there is almost no chance he was convicted of even manslaughter with what the toxicology report shows with the high level of drugs and a lack of air not causing it. Haven't really read enough about it to know how easily a prosecution expert trying to say his knee and some weight being on that area was a cause also and if that could easily be dismissed as a real contributor to the cause of death by the defense medical expert. The other reason I say no conviction would happen in a non-political case is their actual training in that department called for using that to restrain combative people being arrested (at least when he was trained and maybe was still in there at the time of the arrest but I am not sure on that).
I do think this officer was one of those arrogant idiots we see quite a bit as police officers in recent years. Worked quite a bit with some officers in past years and you had a few idiots but not nearly the numbers you see now imo. Just for appearance reasons if nothing else he should have got his knee off his neck area when he was saying he couldn't breathe whether he thought or knew the guy was overdosing on some swallowed drugs.
Having said all that I think because this is such a politically charged case the jury is going to find him guilty of that 3rd degree murder charge or some manslaughter charge just to appease the mob and will say the prosecution medical expert convinced them he wouldn't have died and could have been saved if not for his knee being on his neck like that and that he should have known that. While the actual truth is that could never be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.