In this first episode of I Rest My Case, American trial lawyer Dean Strang and leading English KC Jonathan Goldberg dissect the 2020 killing of George Floyd and subsequent prosecution of Derek Chauvin, and ask themselves the question: was justice delivered? They recap the infamous incident — from a counterfeit bill arrest to Chauvin's nine-minute-29-second neck restraint captured on video — and reflect on the courtroom tactics deployed, the medical disputes over Floyd’s cause of death, the role played by the enormous pretrial publicity, the limits of US free speech, and the broader use of force within police training programs in the US. The hosts contrast US jury selection with the UK’s "take what you get" approach, and debate whether the multiple homicide charges and 22 and a half-year sentence were appropriate: did this outcome spur any real change in US police training methods or was the trial all for show?The first of many fascinating conversations in this hard-hitting new true crime series that takes listeners behind the curtain of the world’s most famous and extraordinary courtroom trials — always searching for the truth where it is so often obscured.
