Update : Ellison charges against the cop

Apparently Derek Chauvin will be charged with all three possibilities here. Second degree murder, third degree murder, and manslaughter. The other three officers will be charged as aiding and abetting the second degree and manslaughter charges (but not the third degree murder).

Most people feel that the third degree murder charge is legally deficient, but I can only assume that Ellison is wanting to give the jury "options" here. Perhaps by charging him in many possible ways, the feeling is that they have a better chance of coming back with a guilty verdict on one of the three.

There are two types of second degree murder charges. One that happens when you intend to kill someone and another if you kill someone while committing a known felony. Ellison is shooting for the latter here. Obviously he is going to attempt to prove that the knee on the neck would be considered felony assault, rather than a misdemeanor assault, or simply excessive force by a police officer.

The question becomes fairly simple. Short of Floyd actually dying, would the knee to the neck had been enough to charge and convict Derek Chauvin with first degree felony assault? Generally a felony assault charge comes with an assault with a deadly weapon or aggravated violence. A misdemeanor charge of simple assault or some form of misdemeanor battery would not qualify as an action that can secure a second degree murder.

There is also questions being raised by legal experts that the Minnesota law requires that the felony assault be something "other" than the action in question. An example being, that you were robbing a bank and someone was accidentally shot and killed, then that would be second degree murder. The argument here is that the assault would not be a separate action from the death (which is why assaults that lead to deaths are generally manslaughter rather than murder). I don't have the legal expertise to flush that out, but if they are correct, then both of the murder charges have legal deficiencies.

At the end of the day, if not for the high profile nature of this situation, I believe that this is a cut and dried manslaughter case. Murder is being charged for the political considerations of the situation. But I think that a manslaughter case is simple to prove, follows precedents, and the right legal call. Chauvin would be facing somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 years in jail and would never wear a uniform again.