Compelling testimony this morning in the murder trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, as the prosecution shifts the focus from “use of force” to cause of death, beginning with an expert witness.
On the stand this morning, Doctor Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist from Chicago, explained to the jury what he believed caused George Floyd's death, saying it was low levels of oxygen.
Doctor Tobin focused on the first five minutes and three seconds of Chauvin's kneeling on Floyd's neck, explaining the anatomy of the neck. Prosecutors asked the doctor if a healthy person would have died in a similar situation.
"Yes, a healthy person subjected to what Mr. Floyd was subjected to would have died as a result of what he was subjected," Tobin told the court.
The doctor also had jurors feel their own necks, feeling cartilage, and then the hypo pharynx protected their Adam’s apple, which he said, is more delicate. After a side bar the jury was told, they did not have to take part in the activity.