MINNEAPOLIS --
The defence began its case Tuesday at the murder trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin, seizing on a 2019 confrontation between police and George Floyd in which Floyd suffered dangerously high blood pressure and confessed to heavy use of opioid painkillers.
Chauvin lawyer Eric Nelson has argued that Floyd died last May because of his illegal drug use and underlying health problems, not because Chauvin pinned him to the pavement with his knee.
Moments after the prosecution rested its case Tuesday following 11 days of testimony and a mountain of video evidence, the defence put on its first witness, a retired Minneapolis police officer who testified about a May 6, 2019, incident in which Floyd was arrested, a year before his fatal encounter with Chauvin.