Former Minneapolis police officers Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged in the death of George Floyd.
The available evidence in the George Floyd case exonerates the four Minneapolis police officers who were charged with second- and third-degree murder, a former federal and state prosecutor said in a Minneapolis radio interview Sunday.
"The murder theory makes no sense at all. These police officers -- let me say this very clearly -- these police officers did absolutely nothing wrong in their handling of this situation," said George Parry in an interview on WCCO radio's "Real Talk with Roshini" Rajkumar.
Parry said the officer body cam footage released by the prosecution -- long after the viral video of Chauvin with his knee on Floyd's neck -- shows the officers adhered to their training by the Minneapolis Police Department.
The neck restraint, he said, was part of the protocol to keep someone in a drug-induced state of excited delirium -- as was Floyd -- from harm by holding him in place.
"I think they showed a great deal of compassion, actually, in the manner in which they handled Mr. Floyd," Parry said.
Significantly, the four officers were charged two days before the toxicology report was released showing Floyd had more than three times the fatal dosage of fetanyl in his blood. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter.
The lethal level of fentanyl, combined with his severe coronary artery disease, extreme agitation and other factors, placed Floyd at imminent risk of sudden death from cardiac arrhythmia, Parry said.
"In many ways, this is an even more likely explanation for his death than an overdose," he said. "Either way, the police did not harm or kill him."
The autopsy, he noted, determined there were no life-threatening or serious injuries inflicted on Floyd, including to his neck or to his larynx.
For five years, Parry was the chief of the Police Brutality/Misconduct Unit of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, which investigated and prosecuted use of deadly force by police.
During the interview, Rajkumar reported a lawyer for Lane is trying to enter into evidence video of a similar incident one year ago in which Floyd resisted officers in Chicago while in an agitated state.
Prosecution stuck with 'completely illogical' case
Parry emphasized that the prosecution must prove to the jury beyond reasonable doubt that the officers acted with the intention of harming Floyd and causing his death in the May 25 incident.
A trial has been set for next March.
To accept the murder theory, Parry said, the jury would have to accept that the police officers "against their own self-interest, in broad daylight before civilian witnesses with cellphone cameras, and on body cameras recording every move and everything they said, ... nevertheless slowly and sadistically murdered George Floyd."
"It makes no sense. You would have to be stark, raving mad to engage in that kind of conduct in front of those witnesses, knowing that the event is being recorded," he told Rajkumar, who is a licensed attorney.
"While they allegedly were in the act of [murdering him], they twice summoned medical help to come render aid to their purported victim," Parry noted. "Nobody does that. That absolutely negates any notion of intent to cause harm.
"That's the completely illogical construct that the prosecution has boxed itself into," he said.
Then, "when you get into the autopsy findings and the toxicology findings, that's where the case totally falls apart."
The WCCO host, Rajkumar, observed: "That is the crux of this. People see that knee on the neck."
In fact, that happened later in the sequence of events, she said.
"But that was the first video people saw around the world, and that is what, it seems, in the public narrative, everyone wants to convict Derek Chauvin on," said Rajkumar.
Parry pointed out that Floyd, while he was still upright and mobile, shouted seven times "I can't breathe" and asked to be put on the ground.
"That's before anyone was kneeling on his neck."
He was shouting "I can't breathe" because, according to the autopsy report, his lungs were filled with fluid, caused by the fentanyl.
"The toxicology report is central to the whole case," Parry said. "This is an incompetent prosection. This is an incompetent performance by the authorities."
See the interview:
"If Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home or anywhere else, and there were no other factors, it would be determined he overdosed," Parry said.
"It was a massive, toxic overdose of fentanyl," he said.
Floyd was found to have had 11 nanograms of fentanyl in his blood while a fatal level can be as low as 3 nanograms. Parry acknowledged that for regular users, the fatal level can be much higher, but studies have shown the median fatal overdose is 9.8 among regular users.
The WCCO host reported, exclusively, she said, a documentary on Floyd's death will be released in coming weeks narrated by Parry.
Articles by George Parry:
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