You can read it for yourself here:
https://www.hennepin.us/-/media/hennepinus/residents/public-safety/documents/Autopsy_2020-3700_Floyd.pdf
One very important note which will play a significant role in the trial: Floyd was VERY high.
I don't see this as providing reasonable doubt to the murder 3 indictment since that will likely focus on the extended length knee to the neck that I still say was the fatal move.
Again, I am not a medical professional so what I think can be taken with many grains of salt. That said I do not agree with others that say that this portion:
means that the knee to the neck was not the cause of death, or as it could be stated, the straw that broke the camel's back. The reason I say this is because I don't think there would necessarily be any "signs" of trauma to the carotid artery from being compressed enough to drop Floyd's blood pressure enough to cause his death. Recall from my last post on the subject that you can simply button your shirt too tight to cause the same thing. It simply doesn't take THAT much pressure and nearly 10 minutes of it is certainly *not good*
I would hope that the prosecutors would ask the medical examiner whether such pressure over an extended period of time would necessarily show damage in an autopsy. And if I were on the jury I would certainly want that question asked and answered. Failure to show beyond reasonable doubt in regards to that would be grounds for conviction in my opinion. [see update below]
As for the other three officers who were charged, I believe this report along with video of the struggle in the vehicle will get them acquitted (again this depends on what other evidence comes out). I believe they can reasonably argue that their participation in holding Floyd down was due to his resisting and they were doing as they were trained to do (which puts the city on the hook) in such situations. I don't think that arguing that they enabled or should have stopped Chauvin from his continued neck restraint is going to fly legally. I think a reasonable jury can find Chauvin guilty of 3rd degree murder while acquiring the other officers (again, given what evidence I know about as of this writing).
[update: 2:05PM EDT]
I'll have to hold off on the portions of the jury questioning of the neck injury or lack thereof. My theory depends on the fact that the compression of the carotid artery would show up as injury to the brain or heart. This report doesn't find that.
I'll be interested in the findings of the family's ME, but they will have to explain this part
if they are going with the neck compression as ultimate cause of death. Here's a run down of
Hypoxic-Ischemic:
When the brain is deprived of oxygen, brain cells are injured. Some may recover, some may die. The most common causes of oxygen deprivation to the brain are low levels of oxygen in the blood or a reduced flow of oxygen to the brain...
There are two stages of injury with HIE: The first stage happens immediately after the initial oxygen deprivation. The second occurs as normal oxygenated blood flow resumes to the brain. This is called “reperfusion injury” and occurs as toxins are released from the damaged cells.
Yes I know the above is in regards to birthing, but the science is the same. There should be some level of injury present. So either this ME got it wrong or this ME got it right. This is significant because it seems to me that the crux of the murder charge IS the knee to the neck. If they cannot show the knee to the neck
is what killed Floyd then they cannot prove murder at any degree.
Here's a good source on
Hypoxic - Ischemic Encephalopathy:
The brain has no energy stores of its own except for a small amount of glycogen in astrocytes. Anaerobic glycolysis of this glycogen provides neurons with some lactate that can be used by mitochondria but is insufficient to meet energy needs. The brain can also use lactate from the circulation. Fatty acids cannot be used because they are not transported across brain capillaries, but the brain can use ketone bodies derived from fat. In the ketogenic diet that is used for treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy, ketone bodies become the main energy source. However, the bulk of ATP is derived from oxidative phosphorylation of glucose. Thus, the brain depends on a second by second supply of oxygen and glucose by the blood.
Here's what I'm concerned about:
With this background, let us examine what happens with different grades of HIE. Suppose that someone has a brief episode of global ischemia, say from fainting. Within seconds, energy failure causes electrical activity in neurons to cease and the patient loses consciousness. Neurons and glial cells are viable and, if circulation is promptly restored, the patient returns to normal. If, however, ischemia lasts longer, first the integrity of cell membranes will be compromised and then cellular metabolism will cease and neurons will die. Ischemia lasting 4-5 minutes can damage irreversibly hippocampal and neocortical pyramidal cells, striatal neurons, and Purkinje cells. More protracted ischemia can damage thalamic and brainstem neurons.
The fact that Floyd had his neck compressed and therefore presumably still under a hypoxic condition, there should be neuron damage. If the ME report OR the family report doesn't show it, then how to prove Floyd's death was a result of the knee to the neck? Presumably the following would help:
If a patient dies shortly after the insult, the brain is usually grossly and microscopically normal.
If the brains "grossly and microscopically normal" as this ME report states, then such findings would NOT rule out the neck compression as cause of death since Floyd did, in fact, die "shortly after the insult".
