Law professors across the country have been closely tracking the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd. Some are even bringing the trial into their teaching or planning entire courses based on it.
But only one legal academic thus far has had a front-row seat to the high-profile court proceedings. Seth Stoughton, a former police offer and current professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, was the final witness for the prosecution, which wrapped up arguments April 12. Stoughton testified for nearly three hours on national standards for police use of force and his process for analyzing an officer’s actions. Stoughton also walked the jury through police body-camera images of Floyd’s arrest while testifying that Chauvin’s actions were excessive and that Floyd did not present a threat in his final moments.
