Derek Chauvin trial: expert witness expected to continue testimony – live 

We’re expecting the hearing to get back underway within the next 10 minutes.

Before things start back up, I thought I’d share a profile interview I wrote last month with Minneapolis’s city council vice president, Andrea Jenkins.

Jenkins has been one of the most forceful voices from the community in the wake of George Floyd’s death and I spoke to her at length about how the city is preparing for this landmark trial.

She told me over Zoom:

“It [the murder trial] is going to be traumatic. We want to have as peaceful a situation as we can, and really have resources there for people to turn to if there are challenges.”

She also spoke about being in regular contact with members of George Floyd’s family.

“They’re really more concerned about justice,” she told me. “They want to see justice and they want to make sure that George Floyd’s name is honoured for the role that his legacy plays in social justice.”

Jenkins is also America’s first Black openly transgender woman elected to public office and she shared some more details of her childhood and rise to office.

You can read the full profile interview here:

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s continued live coverage and analysis of the Derek Chauvin murder trial.

Chauvin, a former officer with the Minneapolis police department who is white, faces three criminal charges in relation to the in-custody death of George Floyd, a 46 year-old Black man whose passing sparked a global reckoning on racism. The most severe of these is second degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

The trial marks an unprecedented moment in the history of Minnesota criminal justice as proceedings are being live streamed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

We have seen a huge number of witnesses testify for the prosecution, including senior figures in the Minneapolis police department, an array of eyewitnesses and medical professionals.

Yesterday saw the state call its first expert witness, Sgt Jody Stiger, a 28-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. Like others with expert knowledge of police use of force, Stiger told the court he believed Chauvin’s protracted use of a knee to neck restraint was excessive force.

“My opinion was that force was excessive,” Stiger testified, telling the court he had reviewed the department’s use of force police and video capturing George Floyd’s arrest.

It’s expected Sgt Stiger will continue to testify when court resumes this morning at 9am CT.

My colleague Chris McGreal has been covering every day of the trial so far, and filed another report after yesterday’s testimony.

We’ll continue to bring you the key lines from testimony as well as deeper analysis.