Rich says he has “high degree of medical certainty” Floyd did not die from a drug overdose
April 12, 202103:19
During his testimony, cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Rich affirmed much of what other medical experts called by the prosecution have said about the cause of George Floyd’s death.
“After reviewing all the facts in the evidence of the case, I can state with a high degree of medical certainty that George Floyd did not die from a primary cardiac event and he did not die from a drug overdose,” Rich said.
“I felt pretty confident that Mr. Floyd had three medical problems,” Rich added: hypertension, anxiety, and substance abuse, but there was no evidence of heart disease.
Rich believes it was low oxygen, caused by the officers’ restraint, that led to Floyd’s death.
Judge denies motion to sequester jury following unrest over police shooting
The judge in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial decided Monday not to sequester the jury in the case following protests in Minnesota over the fatal police shooting of a Black man.
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill denied a motion from the defense Monday morning to sequester the jury following civil unrest after Daunte Wright, 20, was shot and killed by police on Sunday during a stop for a traffic violation. Wright’s death, just miles away from where George Floyd died, in the officer-involved incident once again led to protests and unrest in the state.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued the “fairly extensive civil unrest” and concerns that jurors may be biased in their verdict over such events should lead to the jury being sequestered. The prosecution was against the motion.
In his denial of the motion, Cahill said, “this is a totally different case.”
The judge added that such a request could have the opposite of the intended effect if the jury was suddenly sequestered and then believed there was a greater threat to their security because of the recent unrest.
“It’d be a different story if it was civil unrest following another verdict, where the jury can see what the consequences of a certain verdict might be in a similar case, but that’s not this case,” he said.
Cahill said the jury would be sequestered after testimony has ended and both sides begin their closing statements.
MSNBC legal analyst Paul Butler said Chauvin’s defense never had any real hope of having jurors sent to a hotel room for the trial’s duration — but instead made the application as an insurance policy. Requesting for “the jury be sequestered is really a way that the defense … can preserve this issue on appeal,” Butler said.
Cardiologist Jonathan Rich takes the stand as expert witness for prosecution
Cardiologist Jonathan Rich took the stand Monday as the first witness in the third week of testimony in the Derek Chauvin trial.
Rich works at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and is an associate professor at Northwestern University.
Rich will be providing his opinion on how he believes George Floyd died.
He said this is his first time testifying in a trial.
Crowd protests after police near Minneapolis shoot Black motorist
Police shot and killed a Black man on Sunday during a stop for a traffic violation, sparking protests and unrest in a suburb just miles away from where George Floyd was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis last May.
The man killed by police was identified by relatives and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as Daunte Wright, 20.
The state mobilized the National Guard after crowds gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Sunday evening, and a curfew was ordered through Monday morning.
Rocks and other objects were thrown at the Brooklyn Center Police Department building and there were reports of shots fired in the area of the police department, John Harrington, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a press conference. The unrest came after the police had heard reports of a crowd of between 100 and 200 people marching toward the police department.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
