“He was very high on fentanyl, which kills by suppressing breathing.”
Ok...reevaluating my position again! So he WAS high.
I think the defense attorney’s gonna have plenty to get these cops off.
You have. I idea if he was high. High is an altered mental state. Depending on a lot of things he could have been totally normal.
The problem with this case comes down to this simple question. Are you going to believe a lot of what ifs and maybes or (were I the prosecutor) are you gonna believe your lying eyes? The videotape is a problem for these cops. The deprived indifference is probably the correct charge
If I were to prosecute this I might be inclined to say you know, all of what the defense is throwing at the wall may even be true, but did it mean that four cops should kneel on the neck of this victim until he passed out and became incontinent and then stayed there for over two minutes more?
And leave it at that. The only hope in my judgment that these cops have is that Ellison (the AG who is an ambitious And evil man) gets swept up in the politics and presents an overcharge that is simply unsustainable. Murder 2 is a reach. I think he might try to figure out how to get this to Murder 1 in the politics of it all (malice and forethought could be established in that two extra minutes will be the line he uses should he try it)
The dilemma is that if he overcharges and the cops are acquitted get ready for the world to burn again