CHICAGO (WBBM Newsradio) -- A Chicago law professor said the video central to the Derek Chauvin murder trial likely proved too persuasive to jurors, even as defense attorneys tried to blame George Floyd’s health and other factors in the black man’s death last year.
Jurors deliberated for about 10 hours for the murder and manslaughter charges against Chauvin, an ex-police officer accused of crossing the line as he subdued Floyd outside a grocery store by kneeling on the Black man's neck.
The relatively short time jurors spent together was a signal to some that guilty verdicts were imminent.
Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor Richard Kling said Chauvin’s defense team didn’t have much to work with, given the video: “After five minutes of the officer’s knee on his neck, (Floyd) was unconscious. And the officer continued to keep his knee on his neck beyond when he was unconscious, beyond when there was no pulse.”
“The entire world were eyewitness to what happened there,” Kling told WBBM Newsradio Tuesday. “I would have been surprised if (jurors) were out longer.”
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