Former police officer Derek Chauvin convicted of murdering George Floyd

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of killing George Floyd when he knelt on the man’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, a video-recorded death that ignited a summer of rage and the highest racial calculation in the United States since the 1960s.

A jury on Tuesday convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder and less charges for cutting off Floyd’s air supply on May 25 while he was handcuffed and asking for clemency. The sentence, which stood out against decades of impunity for most cases of excessive police force, could mean decades in prison for 45 years. Chauvin will face sentencing in eight weeks.

The verdict, which came after less than 11 hours of deliberation, came 11 months after the graphic images of Chauvin and Floyd went viral, shocking millions and provoking protests across the country that spread around the world. As the verdict was read, a crowd near the crime scene reacted with applause and hugs.

In a White House speech Tuesday night, President Joe Biden expressed optimism that the verdict could mark a “moment of significant change” for a nation that said it had not done enough to deal with the racial injustice.

“No one should be above the law and today’s verdict sends that message, but it’s not enough,” he said. “This requires recognizing and confronting frontal systemic racism and the racial disparities that exist in policing.” Earlier, he told Floyd’s family in a phone call that his lawyer recorded and posted on Twitter that “nothing will make everything better. But at least, God, now there is justice.

Floyd’s death drove the Black Lives Matter movement, which was already active after previous years of murder by police and vigilantes, while attracting unprecedented support from whites who marched for weeks last summer. . Floyd’s death sparked an urgent debate on the broader issue of inequality and institutionalized racism in all its forms, including the American corporation.

The rage had been building since the death of 2012 Florida teenager Trayvon Martin at the hands of a neighborhood watch member, followed two years later by the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Months before Floyd’s death, white men in Georgia shot Ahmaud Arbery while running and Kentucky police killed Breonna Taylor at her home after waking her and her boyfriend in a drug raid.

While those deaths and many others sparked calls for justice, it was Floyd’s murder, as passersby appealed to the police for clemency that sparked national outrage.

“A hard-won justice has arrived for George Floyd’s family,” Ben Crump, a lawyer who is the head of the Floyd family’s legal team, said in a statement. Crump said the impact of the verdict extends beyond Minneapolis and will have “significant implications for the country and even the world.”

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The fatal incident took place after Chauvin and other officers responded to a call from a convenience store, where an employee said Floyd had tried to use a fake $ 20 bill.

Body camera footage showed jurors that Floyd was agitated as officers approached him with his car with guns thrown. He shouted that he was afraid of being shot and the confrontation intensified after officers tried to put him in a squad car. Floyd shouted that he was claustrophobic and could not breathe. Officers fought him on the ground and viewers filmed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck. I had no dust when the paramedics arrived.

The store on the corner of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue is now a memorial that attracts visitors from all over the country who come to pay tribute to Floyd.

Viral video

Prosecutors opened their case with the viral video, telling jurors that the amount of time Chauvin knelt Floyd would be “the most important number” they would hear. They constructed the case chronologically, calling on other officers, paramedics, and passersby to recreate every step of Floyd’s eventual death.

Medical experts explained how Chauvin’s actions deprived Floyd of oxygen and killed him. Passers-by communicated to the jurors Chauvin’s increasingly frantic calls for Floyd to breathe. One explained that he called the police department to report his own officers.

Chauvin ‘s trial was notable for the number of police officers, included The head of Medaria Arradondo, who testified against one of his own, rejected the closed-mouthed culture that has historically permeated law enforcement. Members of the Minneapolis Police Department and other experts in the use of force declared Chauvin’s actions “objectively unreasonable.”

The police’s willingness to testify against Chauvin amounted to “a turning point,” said Arthur Ago, director of the Criminal Justice Committee of the Civil Rights Committee of Lawyers. “We’ll see if that kind of police involvement in the pursuit of other police officers continues,” Ago said. “Without the involvement of other police officers, we will slide back to where we were before this trial.”

The jurors were influenced. The charge of second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 40 years and sentencing guidelines recommend 12 and a half years. Chauvin was also convicted of homicide and third-degree homicide.

“I don’t mean that today’s verdict is justice, because justice involves a real restoration,” Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general who led the prosecution, said at a news conference in the evening. “It’s accountability, which is the first step to justice.”

Chauvin’s conviction paves the way for the forthcoming trial of the other officers at the scene of the deaths of Floyd, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, accused of aiding and abetting the murder. But the case will have ramifications far beyond Minneapolis.

“The world really got a chance to see how justice was served,” said Sharon Fairley, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who created the city’s Civil Liability Office. “The incident created a debate around police reform that was much more robust than we had ever seen before. Those conversations would have been unheard of even five years ago.”

Few fatal encounters with police lead to charges or convictions

Data: Philip M. Stinson, Bowling Green State University

Floyd’s death politically divided Americans: Reflective support for the police became a Republican totem, as Democrats drew strength from those who saw injustice.

Former President Donald Trump infuriated Democrats last June by holding a job report that said it was a “big day” for Floyd looking down from the sky and later retweeted a supporter who said Floyd ” he wasn’t a good person. “

The conflict only worsened. Protests swept across the United States, often beginning peacefully and turning into violence after dark.

Campaign flash point

Although Trump tried to galvanize his support with contempt for the Black Lives Matter movement, Joe Biden defended Americans who marched peacefully and chose the first African-American and South Asian woman as a running mate, Kamala Harris.

The political impact resonated at a recent Democratic Congress after the November elections. In March, the House of Representatives passed George Floyd’s Police Justice Act, which bans suffocation detentions, bans so-called guarantees of not hitting, and removes protections against “qualified immunity” given to officers in cases. legal. The measure faces uncertain prospects in the 50-50 Senate, where Republicans have enough votes to block most legislation.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, a former county prosecutor where the trial was held, said in a statement that the verdict should motivate federal lawmakers to enact laws that require changes in police practices.

“The Senate has long been advancing and approving police reform to hold officers accountable for misconduct, increase transparency in police practices, and improve police conduct and training, including banning the protection of police officers. people, ”he said. “This is the urgent task before us, not for tomorrow, not for next year, but for now.”

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator, said “the verdict only reinforces that our justice system remains fairer.” He said he saw the path to a bill that would require training for the de-escalation of local police officers and increase the use of body cameras.