How Law Works in the Real World.
Retired Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse addresses a media myth than many of us picked up on from Sicknick family reports weeks ago: the police officer who died during the Jan. 6 Capitol incident died of a series of strokes he suffered that evening, when he returned home after physically skirmishing with the protestors who entered the Capitol earlier that day. No fire extinguisher to the head. No pepper spray poisoning.
Two men have been charged with assaulting Brian Sicknick with pepper spray, but those caused no obvious lingering physical injuries noted in the autopsy. Prosecutors have not charged anyone with Sicknick's death, only with the assault.
"The determination is likely to complicate the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute anyone in the death of Officer Sicknick, 42; two men have been charged with assaulting him by spraying an unknown chemical on him outside the Capitol. But an autopsy found no evidence that Officer Sicknick had an allergic reaction to chemicals or any internal or external injuries.... Two men were charged last month with assaulting Officer Sicknick, but prosecutors have avoided linking the attack to his death...."
That's written confusingly. If "prosecutors have avoided linking the attack to his death," then what are the "efforts to prosecute anyone in the death of Officer Sicknick"? The assault is an assault regardless of whether it caused a death that happened to occur soon afterward. But there's also that discrepancy between what the medical examiner said — "All that transpired played a role in his condition" — and the assertion that the finding of death by "natural causes" excludes the idea that death "was hastened by an injury."
Sicknick's death by natural causes after extreme physical exertion on a job that likely did not call for that daily might be compared with Derek Chavin's choice to avoid continually struggling with a handcuffed George Floyd, who was refusing to get in the backseat of the SUV on Memorial Day 2020. Floyd was bigger, and the first responding officers thought he was on something... Floyd was being held down until the ambulance arrived to provide medical care, and then Chauvin found himself dealing with a gathering crowd and did not cross over from his policing to his EMT duties soon enough after George Floyd's body gave out from lack of oxygen...
George Floyd died after extreme exertion on his body. A jury will decide if Chavin's actions were unreasonable in that situation for a trained police officer after credible witnesses testified those actions caused Floyd's death by cutting off oxygen to his brain and body. Importantly, what role did Floyd's underlying physical condition play in his death? Would a reasonable police officer think he was killing the man underneath him, when the ambulance did not arrive during the time expected? Those are the legal issues to consider in real-life, non ivory tower "safe" situations, professor. (I mean this respectfully: the elite thinkers like althouse are very much isolated in America today, and often limited in their understanding of how jobs and bodies work in reality. They have all the answers sitting at their desks because they don't do these physical jobs -- their ideas of how thing work, in reality, have never been tested in real world conditions.)
That's for a jury to decide, based on evidence like the medical autopsy. The crimes alleged change drastically depending on what you believe the cause of death was, in both Sicknick and Floyd's case.
No mater what legislators like Maxine Waters are urging, questions of Chauvin's legal guilt should be settled in a court of law, not by rioters threatening violence on the street if they do not get the desired outcome. Were I on the jury, I would not convict Derek Chauvin of either of the two murder counts. Manslaughter, at best. But then I understand policing and why you need to maintain control lest you put yourself at risk. I'd err on the side of understanding Chauvin's actions that day, and refuse to convict the officer of murder.
Is there one like me of the 12 jurors seated to judge Derek Chauvin? Maybe there is. And I do not think the threat of more street violence -- $350 million in property damage, and burned out police station, post office and plenty of uninsured stores -- will cow the jury into letting the evidence they saw lead them where it may...
(Police stations are under siege and last year, one was burned to the ground. Words plus actions add context making these clear threats and calls for street justice... No, no. no!)
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