Former police officer Derek Chauvin convicted of killing 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 death that sparked a summer of rage and the highest count. racial race in the US since the 1960s.

On Tuesday, a jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder and lower charges of disrupting Floyd’s air supply on May 25 while lying handcuffed and begging for mercy. The conviction, which stood out against decades of impunity for most cases of excessive police force, could mean decades of imprisonment for the 45-year-old. Chauvin will be sentenced in eight weeks.

The verdict, which reached less than 11 hours of deliberation, came 11 months after Chauvin and Floyd’s graphic recordings it went viral, shocking millions and provoking nationwide protests that have spread around the globe. When the verdict was read, a crowd near the crime scene reacted with cheers and hugs.

In an address to the White House on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden expressed optimism that the verdict could mark a “moment of significant change” for a nation he said did not do enough to deal with racial injustice. .

“No one should be above the law and today’s verdict sends that message, but it is not enough,” he said. “This requires recognition and confrontation with frontal systemic racism and the racial disparities that exist in the police.” Earlier, he told Floyd’s family in a phone call to their registered lawyer and posted on Twitter that “Nothing will make everything better. But at least, Lord, there is some justice now. “

Floyd’s death stimulated the Black Lives Matter movement, already active after years of previous deaths by police and vigilantes, while attracting unprecedented support from white people 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 in corporate America.

Anger has been building since the 2012 death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin at the hands of a neighborhood member, followed two years later by police killing Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. A few months before Floyd’s death, white men in Georgia shot Ahmaud Arbery while jogging, and Kentucky police killed Breonna Taylor in her home after waking her and her boyfriend. them in a drug raid.

While these deaths and many others led to lawsuits, it was Floyd’s murder that prompted the police militia to spark national outrage.

“Painfully won justice has arrived for George Floyd’s family,” Ben Crump, a lawyer who heads the Floyd’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.”

Read more: Follow the latest updates related to the process

The fatal incident took place after Chauvin and other officers answered a call from a store, where an official said that Floyd tried to use a counterfeit $ 20 bill.

Images from the body of the camera showed jurors that Floyd became agitated when officers approached him in the car with guns fired. He shouted that he was afraid he would be shot, and the confrontation escalated after officers tried to put him in a team car. Floyd shouted that he was claustrophobic and could not breathe. Officers knocked him to the ground, and spectators filmed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck. He had no pulse when 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 homage to Floyd.

Viral video

Prosecutors opened their case with the viral video, telling jurors that the time Chauvin knelt on Floyd would be “the most important number” he would ever hear. They built the case chronologically, calling on fellow officers, paramedics, and passers-by to recreate every step in Floyd’s eventual death.

Medical experts explained how Chauvin’s actions deprived Floyd of oxygen, killing him. Passers-by told jurors about the increasingly frantic calls for Chauvin to let Floyd breathe. One said he called the police department to report his own officers.

Chauvin ‘s trial was noted for the number of police officers, inclusive Chief Medaria Arradondo, who testified against one of them, rejecting the closed-mouthed culture that has historically penetrated law enforcement. Members of the Minneapolis Police Department and other experts in the use of force confessed that Chauvin’s actions were “objectively unreasonable.”

The police’s desire to testify against Chauvin has risen to “a turning point,” said Arthur Ago, director of the Criminal Justice Project at the Civil Rights Lawyers Committee. “We will see if this type of police involvement in the prosecution of other police officers continues,” Ago said. “Without the participation of other police officers, we will slip back to where we were before this trial.”

The jurors were tied up. The second-degree murder charge has a maximum sentence of 40 years, and the sentencing guide recommends 12 and a half years. Chauvin was also convicted of third-degree murder and murder.

“I would not call today’s verdict fair, because justice involves a real restoration,” Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general who led the indictment, told an evening news conference. “It’s responsibility, which is the first step to justice.”

Chauvin’s conviction sets the stage for the next trial of the other officers at the place of Floyd’s death, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who are accused of assisting and instigating the murder. But the case will have ramifications far beyond Minneapolis.

“The world has really had the opportunity to follow and see how justice is done,” said Sharon Fairley, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who created the city’s Civil Liability Office. “The incident itself created a debate around police reform, which was much more robust than we have seen so far. These conversations would have been unheard of even five years ago. ”

Few fatal encounters with police lead to accusations or convictions

Date: Philip M. Stinson, Bowling Green State University

Floyd’s death divided the Americans politically: reflexive support for the police became a Republican totem, as Democrats attracted the power of those who saw injustice.

Former President Donald Trump infuriated Democrats in June last year by celebrating a job report that he said was a “great day” for Floyd looking down from the sky, then later sent back a supporter who said Floyd “He is not a good person.”

The conflict has become increasingly bitter. Protests have swept across the United States, often starting peacefully and becoming violent after dark.

Flashpoint campaign

Even as Trump tried to yellow his contemptuous support for the Black Lives Matter movement, Joe Biden defended Americans who marched peacefully for justice and chose as their leading partner the first African-American and South Asian woman, Kamala Harris.

The political impact resonated in a new Democratic Congress after the November elections. In March, the House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which bans suffocation, bans so-called security warrants, and removes “qualified immunity” protections granted to officers in legal cases. The move faces uncertain prospects in the 50-50 Senate, where Republicans have enough votes to block most legislation.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a former prosecutor in the county where the trial took place, said in a statement that the verdict should lead federal lawmakers to pass laws that require changes in police practices.

“It has taken a long time for the Senate to move forward and adopt police reform to hold officers accountable for misconduct, increase transparency in police practices, and improve police conduct and training, including banning obstacles,” she said. “This is an urgent task ahead of us – not for tomorrow, not for next year, but for the moment.”

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator, said “the verdict only reinforces that our justice system continues to be fairer.” He said he saw a way forward for a bill that would require training to de-escalate local police officers and increased use of cameras.