Reverend Al Sharpton and United States Attorney General Eric Holder are just a few of the big names getting involved with the case of Eric Garner, a black asthmatic Staten Island man who died on July 17 after being put in an apparent chokehold by an NYPD officer.

According to the New York Daily News, Sharpton wants the feds to launch a civil rights investigation into the case. If that happens, then Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who put Garner in the chokehold that apparently led to his death, could face murder charges instead of the manslaughter and negligent homicide charges he would likely have to fight if the state kept the case.

In Sharpton’s estimation, Garner’s death was murder with intent. Video shows Pantaleo putting Garner in a chokehold while he and his partner attempted to arrest the 350-pound man for the illegal sale of untaxed cigarettes. Garner, who has asthma, repeatedly told Pantaleo and his partner that he could not breathe, but his pleas for mercy were ignored.

Sharpton believes that Pantaleo’s refusal to release Garner after 11 repetitions of the “I can’t breathe” cry establishes malicious intent to do harm. Add the fact that the NYPD does not even allow its officers to use the chokehold – classifying the method as “excessive force” – and things start looking pretty bad for Pantaleo.

So far, Eric Holder has said in a statement that he and the Department of Justice are “closely monitoring” the case, according to the Daily News. No civil rights investigation has yet been launched regarding the death of Eric Garner. However, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton hinted this week that he expects it will only be a matter of time before the feds take the case and add the civil rights angle.

Proving that Pantaleo’s treatment of Garner was motivated by race could be difficult for federal prosecutors, especially since a cause of death has not yet officially come through for Garner from city coroners. However, the fact that Pantaleo used a chokehold at all could be used to argue that he was robbing Garner of his constitutional right not to be subject to excessive force by a police officer. If the feds do decide to prosecute Pantaleo for a civil-rights-motivated murder, the excessive force argument will undoubtedly be the core of their case.