In this image from video, defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, accompanied by defendant, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, spoke to the judge before prosecutor Jerry Blackwell gave a rebuttal in closing arguments as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presided Monday, April 19, 2021, in the trial of Chauvin, in the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV via AP, Pool)
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UPDATED 2:25 PM PT – Monday, April 19, 2021
Attorneys for the prosecution and defense teams in the Derek Chauvin murder trial delivered their closing arguments.
On Monday, Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson told the jury that the state failed to meet their burden of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Nelson said George Floyd died of an underlying heart disease and a lethal dose of drugs his system. He urged jurors to consider the “totality of circumstances.”
In this image from video, defense attorney Eric Nelson gave closing arguments as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presided Monday, April 19, 2021, in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. (Court TV via AP, Pool)
“A criminal case is kind of like baking chocolate chip cookies, you have to have the necessary ingredients. You’ve got to have flour and sugar and butter and chocolate chips, whatever else goes into those chocolate chip cookies,” Nelson stated. “If you have all of the ingredients, you can make chocolate chip cookies. But if you’re missing any one single ingredient, you can’t make chocolate chip cookies. It’s a simple kind of analogy, but the criminal law works the same way.”
The jury in the high-profile trial has now begun deliberations.
