George Floyd: Victim of 1st Degree Murder, Not 2nd Degree

First Degree Murder is premeditated. Second Degree Murder is without premeditation.

Typically, premeditated murder is planned months, days, or hours in advance. In the case of George Floyd, his murder was premeditated by the offending police officer even though the premeditation happened only minutes leading up to the actual death, as the murder took many minutes of intentional action to be accomplished.

Floyd’s murder was premeditated because the killing was not instantaneous but took a long time, as the asphyxiation through the police officer’s knee pressure on Floyd’s neck lasted nine minutes. That was plenty of time for the police officer to think about what he was doing and to realize that if he persisted long enough Floyd would die. The police officer heard Floyd complaining he could not breathe multiple times and pleading for his life, even calling out for his mother. Since Floyd was handcuffed and lying on his stomach, with two other police officers pressing down on his back and legs, he was totally subdued and presented no threat to the police officers. Another police officer stood by and looked on.

The police officer with his knee on Floyd’s neck had lots of time to reflect on the grave risk to Floyd’s life if he continued pressing for too many minutes. It was not a case of a shooting and instantaneous death. The police officer had plenty of time to remove his knee from Floyd’s neck before rendering Floyd unconscious and dead. The police officer was also warned by passersby that he was slowly killing Floyd, yet he persisted, even threatening them.

The fact that the police officer kept pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes, even more than three minutes after Floyd was unresponsive and already dead, is clear, unambiguous evidence of the police officer’s state of mind, of his intent to kill Floyd.

The other three officers are complicit, two of them having restrained Floyd and applied pressure to his back and lower body while the third looked on. They are also guilty of first-degree murder. There is no way they were not fully aware of the ultimate deadly outcome if the severe pressure on Floyd’s neck and back lasted for more than a minute or two, let alone nine minutes.

The video taken by a passerby is clear, unambiguous, conclusive evidence that the murder of George Floyd was of the first degree, not the second degree. There can be no doubt regarding the intent of the police officer to murder Floyd, given that he had plenty of time to stop kneeing Floyd on the neck before finally asphyxiating him. There can be no doubt that the other three police officers were complicit, fully aware of the risk of asphyxiation if the pressure on Floyd’s neck and back lasted more than a minute or two. A charge of second-degree murder would be a travesty of justice. No honest, reasonable jury would fail to convict all four police officers of first-degree murder. Given the shocking, compelling, clear, unambiguous, overwhelming evidence, a jury failing to convict of first-degree murder would cause a judge to declare a mistrial.

© Edward Sonnino 2020

June 3, 2020#