I'll give you that on the most serious one. On the second one, I disagree, as to why I stated in the post where I was helping you out. 20+ times of "I can't breathe" followed by 3 minutes of silence before removing his knee from his neck/shoulder/person. Intent (,malice, forethought, etc.) is not required. All that need be proven is that he committed an act that was dangerous and he was evincing a depraved mind. I'm not an attorney but the google tells me that means this: conduct demonstrating an indifference to the life of others, that is not only disregard for the safety of another but a lack of regard for the life of another."
Barry, I know it's tough for a Sooner, but carefully read the statute.
"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"
Two points on this. First, the evidence you've mentioned is far more indicative of culpable negligence than it is of eminent danger and evincing a depraved mind. The act just isn't eminently dangerous. There's a reason why police are generally allowed to do it.
Second, I'm going to get into the statutory weeds a little, and it requires a degree of literacy skills rarely seen in OU fans, but try to follow.
You'll notice the word "others." It's plural. Who exactly were the "others?" There were no "others." Floyd was the only one even arguably in danger here. And you'll notice that the plural "others" is used in the context of killings made with "without intent to effect the death of any person" (singular)?
Why word the statute that way? Is it poor draftsmanship? No. Legislatures pass laws like this to fill a gap that would otherwise exist in the murder laws when people do extremely dangerous things that are truly likely to kill (like firing a gun into a crowd or dropping bricks off of bridges onto cars - unlike putting your knee on their shoulder blade, which can be done thousands of times and harm no one) but don't direct them at anyone in particular. They didn't want "I didn't even fire the gun at him" to be able to beat a murder charge.
This is why Judge Cahill (who was otherwise wildly pro-prosecution) initially left the charge out. Why care about this distinction? For starters, if you've been reading my posts over the years, I'm a textualist. Words matter, and courts' deference to the words used by legislatures is a fundamental and essential concept to the rule of law. A court that doesn't do that is tyrannical.
Here's another problem. By ignoring the language in the statute, we're basically making third degree murder redundant with manslaughter.
Consider the definition of manslaughter, as it was used in the jury charge. "Under Minnesota law, whoever, by culpable negligence, whereby he creates an unreasonable risk and consciously takes the chance of causing death or great bodily harm to another person, causes
the death of another is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree."
I know what you're thinking. "Negligence" just means doing something unreasonable like running a red light or rear-ending someone. That's too low of a standard for what Chauvin did. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about "culpable negligence."
“Culpable negligence” is intentional conduct that the defendant may not have intended to be harmful, but that an ordinary and reasonably prudent person would recognize as involving a strong probability of injury to others.
Culpable negligence is more than ordinary negligence or gross negligence. It is gross negligence coupled with recklessness. “Recklessness” is a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death or great bodily harm to others. The defendant, however, need not have intended to cause harm."
That sounds a lot like what you and the Minnesota courts are trying to pass off as third degree murder - basically something dangerous but not intending to kill. It might fly when angry mobs are threatening to burn cities and kill people. It doesn't fly in a state governed by the rule of law.