Robert Weisberg, law professor and co-director of Stanford University’s Criminal Justice Center, told KQED on Friday it would be a potentially close case.

“These would be difficult jury questions,” Weisberg said. “First if the restraint even played a significant causal role in his death, and second of course whether the officers displayed gross negligence or recklessness in supplying that excessive pressure.”

“I can imagine a judge saying ‘Yes, I think there’s sufficient evidence,’ from which a jury could conclude that there’s a basis for an involuntary manslaughter charge. But it’s very tough to say whether a jury would come to that conclusion.”