Thread by @willchamberlain

I think this is going to get cross-examined into oblivion

It's a snapshot, you can't see where Chauvin's other knee is, and it looks like he's leaning a little bit to one side (which is enough to take a LOT of the weight off of the other side

https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1380187320440266753

Also this is an area where the prosecution expert doesn't really have expertise

What in his training gives him the ability to analyze a photo and figure out how weight was distributed?

This was also the moment where I realized how ideological the expert was

He was on solid ground talking about how the knee in the back and the handcuffs being pushed into the mans back could constrain his breathing

But this is just spitballing, and Nelson will catch it

Direct is over, and we'll have cross-examination of Tobin after the lunch break starting at 2:30 est

Tobin was a very strong witness for the prosecution, but I'm underwhelmed by two major aspects of his testimony

First, as discussed, he testified beyond his expertise when he tried to calculate the amount of force that Chauvin placed on Floyd's neck

Second - his attempt to rule out fentanyl as the cause of Floyd's ultimate respiratory failure was not persuasive

His first argument was that Floyd was breathing faster than one would expect from someone suffering from Fentanyl overdose

That seems suspect - just intuitively, respiratory rate seems like a number of factors influence it

Anxious people breathe faster, don't they?

Second was this math calculation that suggests all the CO2 in Floyd's blood corresponded to the length of time he went without breathing

But his math seemed a little sloppy to me (35+49 = 89?)

Another big problem is the mismatch between what the prosecutors have argued was excessive force (knee to neck) and what Tobin identified as responsible for much of the constraint on Floyd's breathing (having his chest pinned to the pavement)

Still - a very effective witness, FINALLY gave some answers to the questions that have been lingering in jury's minds ("how did Floyd die? what about the fentanyl?") and will require an excellent cross from Nelson