CNN “Senior Legal Analyst” Laura Coates took to Twitter Monday to express shock at the fact that Eric Nelson, the defense attorney for former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, would begin his closing argument in the George Floyd murder trial by “defining reasonable doubt.”
Defense begins the closing by defining reasonable doubt, not with why #DerekChauvin is innocent. Think about that. #DerekChauvinTrial#GeorgeFloyd
— Laura Coates (@thelauracoates) April 19, 2021
Her take drew condemnation from the left, right, and center on Twitter.
Despite her title, it’s unclear if Coates — who served in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during the Bush and Obama years, per her website — actually understands the point of defense attorneys, not to mention the legal principle of “presumption of innocence.”
Think about that!