Good Poster said:
I skimmed through this thread but are there any legal folks in here who can give me an opinion on how they think this will fall?
Hearing on Chauvin's motion to dismiss on September 11th. (There are also motions to dismiss on file on behalf of the other officers.) I don't expect an immediate ruling as the judge will have to weigh his options carefully.
It could end up being an outright denial of the motion to dismiss or a partial granting and partial denial meaning the intentional murder charges get tossed and the lesser charges remain.
As to the other officers, Lane (the rookie) has the best chance of dismissal of all charges, in my view. He expressed the most concern for an obviously upset and erratic Floyd, trying to calm him down, acceding to his requests for the window down and to sit with him in the car, all while Floyd continued to actively resist. Lane called the EMS. He rode in the ambulance and assisted in efforts to save Floyd's life. As far as an excessive force case, he is the least culpable if any of them are culpable. (Which I don't think any are culpable in a criminal or civil way.)
One last point. Medical Examiners determine cause of death and then categorize the manner of death as natural causes, accident or homicide but their word on the manner of death is not legally dispositive. On May 31, the ME finally got the toxicology report back and had a conference call with prosecutors. He said had Floyd been found anywhere else, he would have ruled the death as an accidental overdose. That shatters his credibility for being a prosecution witness and makes him a great defense witness. (Notice the Court TV folks failed to mention this.)
Michael Baden's family sponsored private autopsy conclusions are of little help to the prosecution either as he made his conclusions it was a homicide and he failed to wait for the tox report and tissue sample analysis. His conclusion can thereby be shredded by defense counsel.
The upshot of all of this is that the prosecution is not in a position to be medically able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Floyd's death was anything other than an overdose.
My .02.