Former defense attorney Edward Woodson appeared on Patriotically Correct with Stew Peters, a conservative Minneapolis-based radio host, to discuss the likelihood that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin will be acquitted on charges relating to the death of fentanyl user and alleged fraudster George Floyd.
Woodson began by noting that, in a last minute move, the prosecution is now charging Chauvin with third degree murder. They brought back the third degree murder charge because the second degree was imploding,” said Woodson. “It’s a Hail Mary, they knew that the case wasn’t supporting the facts.”
“If you look at more of the video, [Floyd] was talking about how he couldn’t breathe… Right when he’s getting out of the car, and they’re trying to get him into the police car, he’s complaining he can’t breathe,” said Woodson. “That’s one of the signs of fentanyl overdose. The toxicology report has now come out, where he had 3 times the level of fentanyl needed to kill a human being, that and methamphetamine.”
The Minneapolis medical examiner found Floyd had a toxic amount of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, which almost certainly would have resulted in his death regardless of any actions by police. Still, Chauvin became nationally despised after video of him kneeling on Floyd’s back and neck went viral online.
“It’s interesting because if you look at Minneapolis and their manual, he was following textbook, exactly how they’re trained,” said Woodson. Peters, who spent years apprehending dangerous fugitives in partnership with law enforcement in Minneapolis, elaborated on the tactics used by Chauvin.
“This is part of Minneapolis procedures, use of force training, it’s in their policy. This is a lateral neck restraint, commonly referred to as an LNR, LVNR, or VNR, a lateral vascular neck restraint, which in this case was more of just a straight vascular neck restraint,” Peters explained. “It restricts blood flow to the brain, but does not commonly result in death. As a matter of fact, there are no cases where it’s proven that this restraint has caused any death.”
Woodson suggested that once a jury, unable to be reached by sensationalist media reports and confronted with the solid facts surrounding Floyd’s death, may be shocked to learn how normal the arrest would have been if not for Floyd’s drug use.
“The facts have not come out. I think once a jury hears the facts of the case, because think about this,” Woodson began, “If he died as the result of an overdose, in fact it was said, the ME in Minneapolis had said, if they had found him, let’s say at his home, and they found him dead, they would have declared he died of an overdose.”
“Again, he had enough fentanyl – just the fentanyl – in his system to kill three human beings.”
In fact, Floyd had ingested a chemical cocktail of both fentanyl and methamphetamine that almost certainly would have resulted in death, barring immediate medical intervention.
Woodson went on to suggest that the Minneapolis prosecutors likely felt political pressure from the media and local elected officials to “over charge” in the case, regardless of the reality of Floyd’s death.
“With these very high profile cases, where you see, a lot of times the prosecution will over charge, because they have to politically,” said Woodson. “This whole country changed because of, supposedly, because of George Floyd. The whole country.”
“We’ve gone through this whole metamorphosis now, where we’re embroiled in the French Revolution.” Woodson elaborated, “If the premise of this, ie the murder of George Floyd, isn’t a murder, and it is an actual overdose, then you’ve got that whole narrative now flipped, and we’ve got to question, now, the last year.”
