Quote:
Originally Posted by grizy
Minnesota:
609.195 MURDER IN THE THIRD DEGREE.
(a) Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years.
It will be interesting to see what the charge is. In general, if you do something reckless that a reasonable person would expect could cause injury but which a reasonable person would not expect to cause death, a murder charge is unlikely. For example, if I swing a Wiffle bat at someone in anger, and in an attempt to dodge the bat, the person stumbles, hits his head, and dies, I am in trouble for sure, but unlikely to be charged with murder.
Here, the problem for Chauvin is that, regardless of whether he was intending to kill Floyd when he first put his knee on his neck, at a certain it became obvious that Floyd was in real distress and Chauvin did not let up.
It seems to me that his refusal to let up could evidence a mental state sufficient to support a murder charge.