Chauvin Trial – Day 9

Chauvin Trial – Day 9

Derek Chauvin Trial – Day 9 (April 8, 2021)

Witnesses:

1. Dr. Martin Tobin

One of the top respiratory experts in the country who was called by the prosecution as an expert witness.
Stated he believed Floyd died due to a low level of of oxygen.
That isn’t news in itself. That is agreed upon by everyone involved, including the medical examiner and the physician who pronounced him dead.
In fact the defense has never argued that fact.

The reason this is such an big issue in this case is more important than the cause of death itself.

That is because the prosecution is attempting to portray “low level of oxygen” as “cops wouldn’t let him breathe,” in hopes that the members of the jury will conflate “oxygen” with “breathing” and neglect the actual medical definitions they’ve just been taught.


2. Dr. Daniel Isenschmid
Forensic toxicologist at the NMS Laboratory in Pennsylvania who ran tests on Floyd’s blood and urine from the autopsy.

He presented data from NMS Laboratory including this picture.
The fact that he thought a simple bar graph was appropriate for this – with the mean average labeled at the very top of a single bar – is astounding.
This is the most misleading chart I can imagine and I don’t understand why this was allowed – a 5th grader wouldn’t be allowed to use this intentionally misleading scale in public school.


3. Dr. William Smock

Police surgeon and emergency room physician from Louisville, Kentucky, was a paid witness for the state. He testified that in his medical opinion, Floyd “died from positional asphyxia,” or in simpler terms, he had “no oxygen left in his body.”


Full video:

(Source: Washington Post Livestream – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLVXFFqZPiE)