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Chauvin, speaking into a microphone before the jury entered the court, said it was his decision and his decision alone not to testify. Questioning from his attorney Eric Nelson suggested a tense internal debate on the issue.
“I have advised you, and (to say that) we have gone back and forth on the matter would be kind of an understatement, wouldn’t it?” Nelson asked.
“Yes it is,” Chauvin said.
The defense had earlier indicated it was prepared to call another witness on Thursday, but now is expected to rest its case.
“In my opinion, Mr. Floyd had a sudden cardiac arrhythmia, or cardiac arrhythmia, due to his atherosclerosis and hypertensive heart disease … during his restraint and subdual by the police,” said Dr. David Fowler, a forensic pathologist who retired as Maryland’s chief medical examiner at the end of 2019.
Dr. Fowler also put forth a novel argument that carbon monoxide from the squad car’s exhaust may have contributed to Floyd’s death — a theory that he admitted he could not support with any data or test results.
Several other defense witnesses have testified about Floyd’s drug use, particularly during a prior arrest in May 2019 in which he ingested opioids as police approached him in a vehicle.
Chauvin, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges.
Judge Peter Cahill indicated earlier this week that he would prefer to hold closing arguments on Monday because the jury will be sequestered afterward. Cahill also said that the prosecution would have the opportunity to have a rebuttal witness.
The defense’s two main experts
Fowler’s analysis focused on every issue except Chauvin’s restraint of Floyd in the prone position.
He cited Floyd’s narrowed coronary arteries, known as atherosclerosis, and his enlarged heart due to his high blood pressure, or hypertension. Floyd’s fentanyl and methamphetamine use, a tumor known as a paraganglioma, and the carbon monoxide were other significant conditions that contributed to his death, Fowler said.
Meanwhile, he ruled out positional asphyxia as a cause.
“Positional asphyxia, as the term is used in court today, is an interesting hypothesis and unsupported by any experimental data,” he testified. He said Floyd’s death should have been classified as “undetermined,” rather than a homicide, because there were so many competing causes.
The testimony cut at the prosecution’s argument that Floyd’s primary cause of death was low oxygen due to Chauvin’s restraint of a handcuffed Floyd in the prone position — known as “positional asphyxia.”
In cross-examination, prosecuting attorney Jerry Blackwell sharply questioned Dr. Fowler, repeatedly cutting off the doctor’s attempts to offer longer answers.
Fowler was unable to identify the point at which Floyd suffered his “sudden” cardiac arrest, and he said he did not notice that Floyd’s voice grew thicker and quieter as time went on. He also said he agreed that Floyd should have been given immediate medical attention on scene.
The doctor’s analysis contradicted much of what the prosecution’s experts said last week.
Dr. Jonathan Rich, a cardiologist who testified for the prosecution on Monday, said Floyd’s heart showed no evidence of injury at all.
On Tuesday, a use-of-force expert said Chauvin was justified in kneeling on Floyd for over nine minutes and did not use deadly force.
“I felt that Derek Chauvin was justified and was acting with objective reasonableness, following Minneapolis Police Department policy and current standards of law enforcement in his interactions with Mr. Floyd,” said Barry Brodd, a former police officer.
Much of Brodd’s testimony starkly contradicted the prosecution’s policing experts and Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who said Chauvin’s actions were “in no way, shape or form” within department policy, training, ethics or values.
On cross-examination, Brodd conceded that a reasonable officer in Chauvin’s position would have known that Floyd had eventually stopped breathing, had no pulse and was not resisting. Chauvin did not change his position from on top of Floyd despite that knowledge, Brodd testified.