Despite damning video, complex legal issues make Chauvin trial unpredictable

The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd is a potential flashpoint for race relations in America. Though a graphic video shows Floyd's last minutes, an acquittal is a clear possibility, says UC Berkeley criminal justice expert Jonathan Simon. (Photo via AP by Chris Tuite/ImageSPACE/MediaPunch /IPX) The videos have been seen around the world: Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, plants his knee firmly on the neck of George Floyd, a Black crime suspect, even though Floyd is already handcuffed and on the ground, even as he desperately complains that he can't breathe, and then as he becomes unresponsive. Despite the power of the video and witness accounts that seem to clearly implicate Chauvin in Floyd's death, the trial that opened yesterday features a complex weave of legal issues that make the outcome highly uncertain, says UC Berkeley law professor Jonathan Simon. "Acquittal," he says, "has to be considered more likely than not." Floyd was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill when police took him into custody on May 25 last year. Footage from police body cameras shows that Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes , and that span will be of central importance as Chauvin is tried in Hennepin County, Minnesota, charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But the video does not tell the whole story, explained Simon, a specialist in criminal law and associate dean of Berkeley Law's Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program.