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In the trial of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin on Thursday, the focus was on the cause of George Floyd's death.
Medical professional Martin Tobin testified that Floyd died of a lack of oxygen.
The African American suffered brain damage and cardiac arrest, added the pulmonology and emergency medicine expert in the courtroom in Minneapolis.
Floyd's breathing was too shallow for a sufficient supply of oxygen when he was lying on the floor with his hands tied behind his back and face down and Chauvin kneeling on his neck and back.
"A healthy person exposed to what happened to Mr. Floyd would have died," said Tobin, implicitly rejecting the Defense's theory that Floyd died of existing health problems and drug use.
Only on Wednesday, police expert Jody Stiger testified as a witness for the prosecution that the white ex-officer had pressed his knee with most of his weight on the black man's neck.
He maintained this position for the entire period of arrest: from the moment the police brought 46-year-old Floyd to the ground until the paramedics arrived.
According to the prosecutors, it was about nine and a half minutes.
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Chauvin also squeezed Floyd's fingers and pulled one of his wrists to the handcuffs, Stiger said.
It is a method of making a person compliant through pain.
But it was still used after Floyd had long since been tamed.
Previously, Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, had stated that, from his point of view, his client's knee was not on Floyd's neck the entire time, but on the area around his shoulder blade or the base of his neck.
Chauvin is charged in the process of killing Floyd during an arrest on May 25, 2020.
In the past year, video recordings of the event triggered violent protests in the USA, but also far beyond its borders.