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George Floyd
Created on: 2023-10-28
Image: Liao Pan/China News Service/Getty Images
Although George Floyd died over three years ago on May 25th 2020, interest in the case has been renewed. Despite the conviction of police officer Derek Chauvin for his murder on April 20th 2021, many have suspected that Floyd died not from police restraint, but from an overdose of fentanyl, an opiate that is far more dangerous than heroin, and that was found in his system at a high level.
In a recent deposition for a separate case, Amy Sweasy, a Hennepin county prosecutor, refers to events around George Floyd's death. She quotes Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr Andrew Baker, who performed an autopsy on George Floyd, as saying:
". . . there were no medical findings that showed any injury to the vital structures of Mr Floyd’s neck. There were no medical indications of asphyxia or strangulation."
"Amy, what happens when the actual evidence doesn’t match up with the public narrative that everyone’s already decided on?"
"This is the kind of case that ends careers."
At face value, these comments suggest a wrongful conviction took place, and that there was an effort to deliver the public the conviction they demanded. These comments have been taken up by Tucker Carlson, and the Spectator magazine. Carlson's post alone has been viewed, at the time of writing this, over 21 million times. To be clear, the Spectator article alleges that Dr Baker, under pressure, reworded his report not to lie, but to be ambiguous enough to be misunderstood.
However, Dr Baker's views are not the only expert opinions on this case.
Shortly after Floyd's death in 2020, Dr Pierre Kory was to give expert medical testimony in the George Floyd civil (not criminal) case. Prior to the case, Dr Kory had had years of experience in the ICU and pulmonary wards of a busy hospital, and describes himself as having "taken care of many many dozens of opiate overdoses in the ICU."
As he comments . . .