Derek Chauvin’s Trial: a Linguistic and Rhetorical Analysis of the Court Case

Abstract

The article studies prosecutor Jerry Blackwell’s and Derek Chauvin’s defense lawyer Eric Nelson’s opening statements on George Floyd’s death case. George Floyd’s death caused a furor around the world giving rise to the “Black Lives Matter” movement. This court case is the prosecution of the police officer, Derek Chauvin, who kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck till the latter stopped moving. The jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of state murder and he was sentenced to twenty-two and a half years for second-degree manslaughter. The choice of appropriate linguistic elements employed in the statements are studied, to understand which can help one of the parties to win the case. Our preliminary observations of the case text under investigation have brought us to the firm belief that it is of paramount importance to study not only the rhetorical aspect of the lawyer’s speech but also the nature of the linguistic and discourse material employed in it to serve the accomplishment of the persuasive impact on the jury and the audience at large. We have applied the methodology of discourse, rhetorical, and linguistic analyses taking into account comparisons between the speeches to reveal the persuasive, convincing linguistic elements that make a powerful impact on the jury.