Jurors on Tuesday found former police officerDerek Chauvinguilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the killing ofGeorge Floydlast May in an act caught on viral video that fueled a national reckoning on social justice, race and police brutality.
Chauvin, 44, was taken away in handcuffs and will go directly to jail. He will be sentenced in eight weeks.
The recommended sentence in Minnesota for a first-time offender found guilty is 12-and-a-half years in prison for either second- or third-degree murder, and four years for second-degree manslaughter.
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Floyd, 46, a Black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis for allegedly spending a counterfeit $20 bill, died facedown on the ground with his hands cuffed behind him as the white officer pinned his knee to Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes.
The 12 jurors who reached the verdict were made up of five men and seven women — six white, four Black, and two who identified themselves as as mixed race.
George Floyd, at left, and Derek Chauvin.Splash
The verdict followed a prosecution that continued to replay what millions around the world saw, propelling them into the streets in protests: the video of Chauvin, his hands in his pockets and his sunglasses perched atop his head, with Floyd underneath him crying out for his dead mother and repeatedly gasping, “I can’t breathe.”
“Ultimately, it isn’t really that complicated,” prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said in his team’s closing argument Monday. “You can believe your eyes.”
Three weeks of emotional testimony began March 29 with eyewitnesses describing their grief, regret, hopelessness and lingering trauma after witnessing but being unable to stop Floyd’s slide into unconsciousness and death.
An off-duty EMT, Genevieve Hansen, testified that officerswaived off her request to help Floydwhen she happened upon the scene. Another witness, George McMillian, 61,testified through tearsthat after paramedics drove away with Floyd’s lifeless body, he approached Chauvin to say the way he had kept Floyd restrained wasn’t right.
“That’s one person’s opinion,” Chauvin answered him. “We gotta put force, gotta control this guy because he’s a sizable guy. Looks like he’s probably on something.”
Protesters gathered May 30 in Minneapolis near the makeshift memorial in honor of George Floyd.Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty
The Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo, also took the stand totestify against his former officer, who was fired after the death of Floyd, whose “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for protesters around the country and across the globe.
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace donned a shirt that echoed calls for justice following George Floyd’s death.Chris Graythen/Getty
“Once Mr. Floyd had stopped resisting, and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that, that should have stopped,” Arradondo testified.
Derek Chauvin.Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock
George Floyd memorial site in Minneapolis.Stephen Maturen/Getty
“The standard is not what should the officer have done in these circumstances,” Nelson said in his closing argument. “It’s not what could the officer have done differently under these circumstances. The standard is what were the facts that were known to this officer at the precise moment he used force … and what would a reasonable police officer have done.”
He added: “There is absolutely no evidence that officer Chauvin intentionally, purposefully applied unlawful force.”
Chauvin pleaded the 5th Amendment in deciding not to take the stand in his own defense.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, testifying April 5, 2021, in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin.Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock
George Floyd.Ben Crump Law Firm
But “George Floyd was not a threat to anyone,” another prosecutor, Steve Schleicher, said in his closing. “Facing George Floyd that day did not require one ounce of courage. All that was required was a little compassion, and none was shown.”
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Noting the medical examiner’s ruling of homicide, Schleicher said, “What the defendant did to George Floyd killed him.”
“What the defendant did was not policing,” he said. “What the defendant did was an assault. He betrayed the badge.”
As the verdict was read, a nation riveted to the trial unlike any other in recent memory readied its reaction, from the Minneapolis memorial site now known as George Floyd Square where Floyd died to major cities around the country where law enforcement and National Guard troops stood poised to calm a potentially tumultuous response.
Chauvin will be sentenced at a later date. Three other now-former officers on the scene with Chauvin — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — all were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and will be tried apart from Chauvin this summer. All have pleaded not guilty.
Chauvin was fired a day after the killing. In the midst of jury selection that began March 8, the City of Minneapolis announced a$27 million settlementwith Floyd’s family in a civil lawsuit brought against the city, Chauvin and the other former officers.
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source: people.com
