Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Experts split on Chauvin case... to some degree

However, I have not found anyone who suggests the state has proven murder

While everyone seems to fudge a bit on what they believe the jury will ultimately do the majority of the pundits I have been following believe that the State did not prove any of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. The two exceptions are former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy and my Powerline namesake Scott Johnson. Both feel that the prosecution made a good enough argument to convince them that Chauvin committed manslaughter. 

The first issue I ultimately take with McCarthy is his assertion pretty early on that the state had, without a doubt, settled the concept of cause of death. That assertion was made immediately following the Martin Tobin and William Smock testimony and McCarthy has not broached the subject since. To draw that conclusion prior to the defense presenting their case seems in poor legal taste considering McCarthy was an attorney who prosecuted cases. He should at least pretend to have an open mind.

The second issue I take with McCarthy is that he appears to be applying a normal negligence manslaughter charge to the culpable negligence that we have in Minnesota. It is not a difference without a distinction, although many pundits seem to be treating it this way. To the degree that it is different is largely a matter of intent, but again, these are murky waters and how the jury looks at culpable negligence might not be the way it is defined in the statutes. 

That being said, obviously both McCarthy and Johnson feel that Chauvin was responsible for the death of Floyd. Both of these pundits obviously went to intent and both found enough there to warrant the manslaughter charge. However, neither found the mens rea required to go to murder.

On the flip side Andrew Branca is the legal expert I have been following most closely since his analysis has been more detailed and informative. It's not just a daily or every other day sort of deal. He provides daily transcripts (with comments) and at least once a day provides a recap or analysis. He is one of those who believes that the State has not proven any of the charges, but is uncertain as to what the jury will do.

_______


Up until this weekend I was pretty convinced that the best the State could hope for was Manslaughter and I wasn't convinced that everyone on the jury would even be on board with that. But after recent events, the manner in which the jury must have been exposed to recent violence along with some gut feelings I get from watching the jury instructions and closing arguments, I am not so sure. I could certainly see a murder conviction based purely on fear of what happens from any other verdict.

The instructions "seemed" unbiased and objective, but not terribly specific. But even as the defense and prosecution disagreed in closing as to what they meant, the Judge refused to really "clarify" either way and instead he just reread the instructions without clarification. According to Branca, that might be intentional because some of these things are currently still tied up in court (such as the third degree charge). Branca suggested that the Judge either didn't know or didn't want to come across as playing sides. Either way, that leaves a lot of leeway for jurors to become obscured by the arguments about these instructions. 

What the law is should not be something that the jurors have to argue during deliberations. That needs to be provided very specifically for them, and it should be done by the judge. Hopefully they rely 100% on what is written in those instructions and disregard the attorney's  own interpretations, which in some cases were loose interpretations if not outright misrepresentations. At the end of the day, this trial involved a lot of loose interpretations and outright misrepresentations, and these happened on both sides. It's going to be difficult for the jury to sort through everything and feel that they are making an objective call on objective facts.


27 comments:

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

Tim Young
https://twitter.com/TimRunsHisMouth/status/1384270161021005834

The Judge literally just commented about politicians staying out of this trial in order to keep it fair, and then Gov. Tim Walz holds a press conference to shit all over it.

It's about to be mistrial o'clock.


And then Biden comes out with a statement that ensures riots if the "right" verdict is not reached (after the jury is sequestered)

Joe Biden's America

Banana Republic

No justice, no police


Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Mr. Broke-It Biden at it again.
Calling for riots in every major city.
Jury tampering .

He is a Felon.

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

Andy NgĂ´

VIDEO: https://mobile.twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1384472012677124099

A black Portlander is fed-up after #antifa destroyed the windows of the chicken restaurant during their riot overnight. Antifa say they are rioting “for black lives.” #PortlandMugshots


BLdon'tM

Every night in Portland.

Coming to a neighborhood near you

Joe Biden's America

1984

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

Will Chamberlain
https://mobile.twitter.com/willchamberlain/status/1384575680093032450

Dershowitz says what should have happened

1) Should have been postponed after the civil settlement with the city

2) Should have been moved out of Minneapolis

3) Jury should have been sequestered from outset

4) Alternatively, the judge's instruction should have been stronger
---
Dershowitz suggests that there was not just a thumb, but an "elbow on the scale of justice"
---
Dershowitz points out that because the jurors live in Minneapolis facing riots, "they have a personal stake in the outcome of their deliberations." Totally unacceptable in his view


But to paraphrase Joe Biden - Hang him high

rrb said...



A black Portlander is fed-up after #antifa destroyed the windows of the chicken restaurant during their riot overnight. Antifa say they are rioting “for black lives.”

I feel for those folks. There are plenty of black folks who want nothing to do with this shit and they're caught in the crossfire.

Not antifa.

There should be open season on antifa. Wholesale slaughter. It's the only thing they'll understand.

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

Kathy Barnette
https://mobile.twitter.com/Kathy4Truth/status/1384533400304848899

It's not Maxine Waters' life work that's being looted. It won't be Maxine Waters hiding with her children as riots break out. She just lights a match, jumps back on her private plane and go back to her mansion.


and Joe Biden provides the gasoline

Honest, decent, truthful Rev. said...

POLITICO REPORTS:
Ex-Trump Aides Say He Whiffed on Vaccination Legacy

“Former President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to pitch his voters on getting the jab has become the source of frustration for former aides, who lament the political benefits that would have come had he done so.

Said one former official:
“If he spent the last 90 days being the voice — and taking credit because he deserved to for the vaccine — and helping get as many Americans get vaccinated as he could, he would be remembered for that.”

The official added:
“Honestly, I think if he was out on the road and celebrating his accomplishments and trying to get people vaccinated, he wouldn’t have been in the mindset that led to January 6.”
_________

My goodness.
This is being said by his own former people.


To "whiff": To vacillate.

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

rrb said...
I feel for those folks. There are plenty of black folks who want nothing to do with this shit and they're caught in the crossfire.

Not antifa.

There should be open season on antifa. Wholesale slaughter. It's the only thing they'll understand.


I saw an "undercover" video from a Portland antifa meeting the other day. Didn't watch the whole thing but saw a couple of young white girls giggling about what to do, make sure you don't tell your friends anything about what/where you were, stay together etc. You could tell they weren't fearing anything.

They need to be crushed with no mercy.

Kind of like the feds are doing to the capitol protesters who are still in solitary confinement. It;s come out that the feds actions was to ensure no protest during Biden's inauguration.

Police state, the feds have picked their side.

Caliphate4vr said...

Predictions from Earth Day 1970

We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.”
• Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
• New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970

“At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“We are prospecting for the very last of our resources and using up the nonrenewable things many times faster than we are finding new ones.”
• Martin Litton, Sierra Club director

“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.'”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

John Hayward
https://twitter.com/Doc_0/status/1384506145809780738

Rather telling that absolutely no one in the mainstream media is even slightly interested in finding out where the fake stories about Sicknick originated.

They'll doxx the hell out of Twitter randos, but zero interest in investigating who punked the entire media on this one.



The FAKE NEWS media had the narrative they wanted to push and they needed to sensationalize it.

FAKE NEWS

enemy of the people

Joe Biden's America

1984


Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

Caliphate4vr said...
Predictions from Earth Day 1970


the left runs on scaring the public

amazing what they were saying 50 years ago.

and they slowly keep sliding out the goalposts and repeating their lies.

Many of those people are now dead, and benefited greatly for themselves.

Grifters

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

John Hayward
https://twitter.com/Doc_0/status/1384499712406048772

In the BLM era, the "civil rights movement" has largely degenerated into a scam where poor and middle-class black Americans are remorselessly looted by a few super-rich, politically connected race hustlers.

They get mansions. You get rubble.


Caliphate4vr said...

the left runs on scaring the public

amazing what they were saying 50 years ago.

and they slowly keep sliding out the goalposts and repeating their lies.

Many of those people are now dead, and benefited greatly for themselves.

Grifters


Rachel Carson is responsible for millions of lives being lost after her tome “Silent Spring” was released

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

John Cardillo
https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status/1384189811255234563


They are some very credible reports and some very good citizen journalism that indicates the same black Capitol PD Lieutenant who killed white USAF veteran #AshliBabbitt also negligently left his gun in an unsecured bathroom back in 2019 while kids were on tours of the Capitol.


rumors have him active in BLM also

strange why the media is not the least bit curious.

It's been 3 months and the capitol has been under lockdown.

You would think a press interested in the truth would have found out by now...

Democracy dies in darkness

And false narratives.

FAKE NEWS



Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

Emerald Robinson ✝️
https://twitter.com/EmeraldRobinson/status/1384492466527735809


The same people who lied about Officer Sicknick are the same people who lied about Russia bounties are the same people who pushed the Russia Hoax.

Same people.


Caliphate4vr said...

Get ready Ukraine. Ship some money to Hunter and the Big Guy

Satellite images reveal new Russian military base in Crimea filled with thousands of tanks and troops as Putin masses 150,000 troops on border with Ukraine

Satellite images have revealed Russian military camp near Kachyk Lake, on south coast of Crimean peninsula

Images show thousands of vehicles lined up inside fenced-off pens alongside infantry tents arranged in rows

Camp has appeared over the course of the last month, and is the first new camp to be pictured in Crimea

Ukraine believes there are now more than 150,000 Russian troops on the border, the largest force assembled by Moscow since it annexed Crimea in 2014

anonymous said...

Predictions of the fucking losers predictions..........BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! Humorless at best, but coming from a UGA flunky, not surprising!!!!! Especially the chilling prediciotn which I debunked here numerous times....but Paul paying attention.......Not ever going to happen!!!!! One thing for certain....CO2 concentrations have gone from 340 ppm to today's 392 ppm plus the record 10 hottest years have occurred in this century!!!!!!! Yeah loser.....they sucked at predicting some things....!!!!

anonymous said...

Yeah,,,,,,maybe biden can send Jim Jordan and Greene there to defuse the tension!!!!!!! BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! I am sure trump would call Putin and say what a great job he's doing killing Novony........asshole

rrb said...

Blogger Caliphate4vr said...

Predictions from Earth Day 1970



Erf Day.:

That day each April when you're supposed to murder your girlfriend and compost her in a steamer trunk.



Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

John Cardillo
https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status/1384490544479473664

- George Floyd died of an OD

- Adam Toledo was an armed gangbanger

- Brian Sicknick died of natural causes with no sign of trauma

- Double the amount of whites are killed by cops than blacks

- Sex is defined at birth

- Truth enrages the left


SCIENCE

Coldheartedtruth Teller said...

The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of George Floyd. 

Chauvin is facing three charges: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

The verdict will be read aloud in court between 4:30 p.m. ET and 5 p.m. ET.


About one hour

rrb said...



rumors have him active in BLM also


He needs to be identified, doxxed and harassed 24/7/365.

Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

The Election Wizard
https://twitter.com/Wizard_Predicts/status/1384144038694064132

REPORT: Group linked with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated nearly $5.6 million to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office. -- Georgia Star News


Even more election meddling by big tech.

As if they didn't do enough.

And kind of explains why Raffensperger was such a wimp. Needs to be a full audit and a plug from allowing this type of meddling going forward.

rrb said...



Satellite images reveal new Russian military base in Crimea filled with thousands of tanks and troops as Putin masses 150,000 troops on border with Ukraine

Yep.

And wait until China moves on Taiwan.

Our enemies and adversaries are comfortable in the knowledge that the drooling imbecile in cognitive decline can't climb a flight of stairs, let alone challenge any global aggression.


Commander-in-Thief Biden said...

Adam Kredo
https://twitter.com/Kredo0/status/1384235646353481729

JUST IN: More than 2,000 Israeli Military and Security Officials Unite in Opposition to Biden Admin’s Iran Deal -- In show of unity between Israel and its Arab allies, top brass warn Biden admin is undermining newfound regional security


As was famously said Joe has been fabulously wrong on almost every foreign policy he has been involved in.

And it continues


anonymous said...

n you're supposed to murder your girlfriend and compost her in a steamer trunk.

Just like you did with your wife......BWAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!