Pretty sure assault is a general intent crime in Minnesota.
State v. Fleck, 810 NW 2d 303 - Minn: Supreme Court 2012 - Google Scholar
“The forbidden conduct is a physical act, which results in bodily harm upon another.
Although the definition of assault-harm requires the State to prove that the defendant intended to do the physical act, nothing in the definition requires proof that the defendant meant to violate the law or cause a particular result.”
State v. Dorn, 875 NW 2d 357 - Minn: Court of Appeals 2016 - Google Scholar
“The state charged appellant Alie Christine Dorn with first-degree assault, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.221, subd. 1 (2012), after Dorn pushed another person, causing him to fall backwards into a bonfire... At about 1:30 a.m., the complainant was standing with his back to a bonfire. One of his friends drew his attention to Dorn, who was standing nearby, and asked if he thought she looked like a drug dealer. Attempting to joke, he replied to his friend that, yes, she looked like a drug dealer. Dorn, who appeared intoxicated, overheard him, said, "What?," and then pushed him with two hands. He lost his balance, and she pushed him again with two hands, causing him to land on the embers of the fire, where he remained for several seconds before a witness pulled him out. He sustained third-degree burns, which required skin grafting surgery on his arm and hand.”
She goes on to argue that she didn’t mean for him to fall in the fire. The court says it doesn’t matter because pushing him was intentional.
“To support a conviction of assault-harm, Minnesota law does not require proof that the appellant intended to inflict bodily harm. The evidence is sufficient to sustain Dorn's conviction of first-degree assault because some degree of physical force was intentionally used against another and was a substantial cause of great bodily harm.”
Here, the assault is the act of kneeling on Floyd’s neck after it became unreasonable to do so. So, are you saying the jury should have found that kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9.5 minutes while people were telling him that he was dying was an accident?*
Also, jury verdicts don’t have that sort of precedent value and officers will still have qualified immunity, for now.
*- whether a general intent crime can/should be able to sustain a felony murder conviction is probably a legitimate question of law, but as it’s written right now, that seems to be the way it works.
