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National
Derek Chauvin Found Guilty On All Counts In The Murder Of George Floyd
Why Chauvin’s Conviction Matters
DERRICK CHAUVIN BEING LED OUT OF COURT.
MINNEAPOLIS — The jury has found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts in the murder of George Floyd last May.
Chauvin, 45, was found guilty of second- and third-degree mur- der and second-degree manslaughter.
The judge asked each juror if the verdict was correct, thanked them and dismissed them. "I have to thank you, on behalf of the people of the state of Min- nesota, for not only jury service, but heavy-duty jury service," Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill said.
He revoked bail and told Chauvin to report back in eight weeks for sentencing. Chauvin, silent and wearing a gray suit and a light blue surgical mask, was handcuffed and taken into cus- tody.
George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd was sitting with his head bowed and his hands folded in front of his face in prayer before the verdict was read. As each verdict was read, his hands increasingly shook and
DERRICK CHAUVIN
his head nodded up and down.
"I was just praying they would find him guilty. As an African American, we usually never get
justice," Floyd said.
Afterward, Floyd cried and
hugged prosecutors, who shook hands with the Minnesota attor- ney general. One prosecutor wiped away tears.
Chauvin, who is white, was seen on video pinning George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, to the ground with his knee last Memorial Day for over nine min-
utes after police responded to a report that Floyd used a coun- terfeit $20 bill.
Cellphone video of the incident went viral and touched off months of protests in the U. S. and abroad condemning police brutality and calling for racial justice. The widely watched trial, which began in March with jury selection, was livestreamed – Minnesota's first criminal case to be televised.
Chauvin faces 12 1/2 years or 150 months in prison under sen- tencing guidelines for a first-time offender. But, the prosecution ar- gues there are aggravating factors that require a longer prison term. That means Chauvin may face longer than that sentence.
Throughout the trial, prosecu- tors argued that Chauvin's knee – pressed against Floyd's neck while he was handcuffed and face-down on the street – led to his death by loss of oxygen. The defense argued underlying heart issues and the methampheta- mine and fentanyl in his system caused Floyd's death while he struggled with police.
The Derek Chauvin verdict has been nearly a year in the making. Footage of the murder of George Floyd last May has been viewed by millions world- wide, sparking ongoing interna- tional protests against police brutality and igniting policy changes to reform and reimag- ine the role of police. Though the amount of video footage of the killing was unprecedented and the momentum for justice was undeniable, history did not nec- essarily point to an easy convic- tion.
The former Minneapolis po- lice officer was found guilty of all three charges — second-degree unintentional murder, third-de- gree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. That’s rare in a system where it’s uncommon to prosecute police for killing someone, let alone convict them. For example, only seven police officers have been convicted of murder for police shootings since 2005. The law favors po- lice — giving them latitude to use force — plus, Americans, in- cluding jurors, tend to trust po- lice officers.
As Chris Slobogin, the di- rector of the criminal justice program at Vanderbilt Univer- sity, told Vox, “The jury is com- posed of citizens of the community who want the police to protect them.”
For this reason, Chauvin’s conviction is significant. The jury’s decision proves that they believed Chauvin acted far out- side his duties as a police officer sworn to protect and serve the community.
But as the prosecution noted in its closing statement, the trial was between the state and the defendant — not between the state and policing. Whether the verdict will lead to greater police accountability and build on the momentum ignited by Floyd’s
death remains to be seen. While we don’t know much about the jurors, we do know they were uncharacteristically diverse — one Black woman, three Black men, two multiracial women, four white women, and two white men. The jury ques- tionnaire revealed that the ju- rors had mixed views on the police, Black Lives Matter, and “blue lives matter,” with some of the jurors saying they wanted to hear more about Minneapolis police training and whether Chauvin’s restraint was within
protocol.
The problems with polic- ing are vast and still need
immediate attention
The problems with policing don’t begin and end with Derek Chauvin.
As the past few weeks alone have shown, these problems exist in Chicago, where, hours before the Chauvin trial began, a police officer shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo in the chest as the boy raised his hands. And in Maryland, where, as the trial ap- proached its conclusion, police shot and killed 16-year-old Pey- ton Ham, who was holding a toy gun. And they certainly exist around the area where Floyd was killed, with the recent killing of 20-year-old Wright just outside Minneapolis.
Over the past five years, po- lice have killed an average of three people per day, according to Mapping Police Violence. The specter of death at the hands of the police is a particularly vivid one for Black men; one 2019 study found that Black men have about a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by police. So rapid are these shootings that the deaths, anger, and calls for jus- tice begin to feel cyclic. Legal proceedings against one former officer often cannot conclude be- fore the next case begins.
'It Can't Stop Here': Biden, After Chauvin Verdict, Calls For Passage Of George Floyd Bill
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden called for a "moment of significant change" to fight systemic racism in policing Tuesday after Minneapolis po- lice officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts in the death of George Floyd.
"No one should be above the law, and today's verdict sends that message," Biden said in a speech from the White House. "But it's not enough. It can't stop here. In order to deliver real change and reform, we can and we must do more to reduce the likelihood that tragedies like this will ever happen again."
A Minneapolis jury Tuesday afternoon found Chauvin, 45, guilty of second- and third-de- gree murder and second-degree manslaughter for Floyd's death last May.
Biden called the death of Floyd – a 46-year-old Black man whose head was pinned under Chauvin's knee for more than nine minutes – "a murder in the full light of day" that "ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see systemic racism."
The president said the nation must confront "head on" sys- temic racism and disparities that
President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Ka- mala Harris, speaks Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the White House in Washington, after former Minneapolis police Offi- cer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaugh- ter in the death of George Floyd.
exist in policing and the criminal justice system. While state and local governments "need to step up," Biden said, so does the fed- eral government.
"We can't leave this moment or look away thinking our work is done. We have to look at it as we did for those nine minutes and 29 seconds," he said. "We have to listen. 'I can't breathe. I can't breathe.'
"Those were George Floyd's last words. We can't let those words die with him. We have to keep hearing those words. We must not turn away. We can't turn away. We have a chance to
begin to change the trajectory in this country."
Biden said his Justice De- partment is "fully committed to restoring trust" between law en- forcement and communities. He touted two of his nominees for high-ranking DOJ positions, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, whose confirmations many Republican oppose. Biden said they would help ad- vance his administration's prior- ities to "root out" unconstitutional policing and re- form the criminal justice system. "And they deserve to be con- firmed," Biden said.
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