Chauvin Murder Trial

[Rev. Rye]

Here's the official federal guidelines for use of deadly force. There are circumstances that would permit deadly force. That said, Floyd wasn't attacking the cops or anyone else, I doubt Cup Foods had anything that could be considered "special nuclear material," and I don't think he had the idea to escape and do any of these things.

And, if those federal guidelines only apply to US Marshals, here's the guidelines for the state of Minnesota. Here's the relevant section:

Subd. 2.Use of deadly force.

(a) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 609.06 or 609.065, the use of deadly force by a peace officer in the line of duty is justified only if an objectively reasonable officer would believe, based on the totality of the circumstances known to the officer at the time and without the benefit of hindsight, that such force is necessary:

(1) to protect the peace officer or another from death or great bodily harm, provided that the threat:

(i) can be articulated with specificity by the law enforcement officer;

(ii) is reasonably likely to occur absent action by the law enforcement officer; and

(iii) must be addressed through the use of deadly force without unreasonable delay; or

(2) to effect the arrest or capture, or prevent the escape, of a person whom the peace officer knows or has reasonable grounds to believe has committed or attempted to commit a felony and the officer reasonably believes that the person will cause death or great bodily harm to another person under the threat criteria in clause (1), items (i) to (iii), unless immediately apprehended.

So, unless George Floyd was an imminent danger to Chauvin and co. or civilians and this was the only way he could keep people safe and he could have stated this at the time, the use of deadly force was not permissible. And even if (and I'm using the closest thing I can imagine to a reasonable circumstance in this case) he was hell-bent on going back to his own car, high on Fentanyl and was likely to run over a bunch of people (and, I should reiterate, I don't think this is likely) AND Chauvin knew this, then, why not just shoot him? Seriously, if done right, it can kill damn near instantly. Somehow, I doubt that putting him in a chokehold for 9:29 is a sane method of committing lethal justice, especially since you could probably just handcuff him in that time.