‘Excited delirium’ emerges as key issue in trial of officers accused over George Floyd death

Use of the controversial label "excited delirium" by first responders when subduing people exhibiting signs of severe agitation has emerged as a key issue in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd.

Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are accused of depriving Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, of his civil rights by failing to give him medical aid while he was handcuffed and lying facedown as their senior colleague Derek Chauvin proceeded to murder him on 25 May 2020.

Jurors in the civil rights trial of the three more junior ex-officers have heard that Kueng knelt on Floyd's back and Lane held down his legs, while Thao kept bystanders back. Kueng and Thao are additionally accused of failing to intervene to stop Chauvin, who was last year found guilty of Floyd's murder and sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.

Chauvin admitted violating Floyd's civil rights in his additional federal case last December following Floyd's murder, which triggered protests worldwide and a re-examination of racism and policing.

All were fired from their jobs and arrested days after Floyd's killing in 2020.

Thao, Kueng and Lane have pleaded not guilty in both their federal joint civil rights case and their state criminal case, which is due later this year and in which they are accused of aiding and abetting murder.

In the current trial taking place in St Paul, the Minnesota state capital, one of the prosecution's key arguments is that they were trained to provide medical aid in emergencies, and that Floyd's situation had become so serious as police held him down that bystanders, even children with no medical training, knew something was wrong.