Prosecutors at the trial of Derek Chauvin have revealed a new aspect to George Floyd's death.
According to The Times, critical care specialist Dr. Martin Tobin testified at the trial of the former police officer that Chauvin had lifted his back leg off the ground when kneeling on Floyd's neck.
Tobin displayed in a diagram that, according to CCTV footage of the incident, the toe of Chauvin's boot was not touching the ground, meaning that all of his body weight was resting on the back of Floyd's neck, severely restricting his oxygen supply at the time of his death.
He then told the jury at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis that, at times when Chauvin was in a near-vertical position, half of Chauvin's body would have weighed 41.5 kilograms.
Drawing the jury's attention to the distressing footage, Tobin told the court: "At the beginning, you can see he’s conscious, you can see slight flickering, and then it disappears. That’s the moment the life goes out of his body."
Tobin went on to state that the lack of oxygen led to a loss of consciousness and severe brain damage, adding: "A healthy person subjected to what Mr. Floyd was subjected to would have died."
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter after he knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.
Floyd, a former security guard who lost his job as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, died on May 25, 2020.
He was killed after four police officers were summoned to a grocery store in Powderhorn Park after the proprietor accused Floyd of using a counterfeit banknote to pay for his purchases.
Floyd was then handcuffed while laying face down in the street. Security camera footage showed that he repeatedly asked for help and pled for leniency from ground level, even stating audibly "I can't breathe" more than 20 times.
When footage of the incident emerged online, Floyd's death sparked a wave of protests across America and the entire world over the issues of police brutality and racial profiling.
The trial, which began on March 29, is expected to last another three weeks before the jury begins the process of sentencing.