Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin convicted of George Floyd’s murder

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd when he knelt on the man’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, a videotaped death that spawned a summer of anger and the greatest racial reckoning in the US has been causing since the 1960s.

A jury on Tuesday convicted Chauvin on second-degree murder and lesser charges for cutting off Floyd’s air supply on May 25 while he lay handcuffed and begging for mercy. The conviction, which in most cases of excessive police force against decades of impunity, could mean decades of imprisonment for the 45-year-old. Chauvin is sentenced within eight weeks.

The verdict, reached after less than 11 hours of deliberation, came 11 months after graphic images of Chauvin and Floyd went viral, which sparked millions of shocks and nationwide protests that spread around the world. When the verdict was read, a crowd near the crime scene responded with cheers and hugs.

In a White House speech on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden expressed optimism that the verdict could mark a “moment of significant change” for a country he said had not done enough to face 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 recognizing and confronting systemic racism and the racial inequalities that exist in the police force.” Earlier, he told Floyd’s family in a phone call that their attorney recorded and posted on Twitter that “Nothing will make it all better. But God, at least now there is some justice.”

Floyd’s death kick-started the Black Lives Matter movement, already active after years of previous killings by police and vigilantes, while gaining 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 in corporate America.

Anger had arisen since the death of teen Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012 at the hands of a neighborhood watchman, followed two years later by the murder of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri. 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 in a drug attack that went awry.

While those deaths and many others sparked calls for justice, it was Floyd’s murder when bystanders begged the police for mercy that sparked national outrage.

“Painfully deserved justice has arrived for George Floyd’s family,” Ben Crump, a lawyer who heads the Floyd family’s legal team, said in a statement. Crump said the verdict’s impact will extend beyond Minneapolis and “will have significant repercussions for the country and even the world.”

Read more: Follow the latest news updates related to the trial

The deadly incident occurred after Chauvin and other agents responded to a phone call from a grocery store where a clerk said Floyd had attempted to use a counterfeit $ 20 bill.

Body cameras showed jurors that Floyd became annoyed when officers approached him in his car with weapons drawn. He screamed that he was afraid of being shot, and the confrontation escalated after officers tried to put him in a police car. Floyd screamed that he was claustrophobic and couldn’t breathe. Officers wrestled him to the ground and spectators filmed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck. He had no pulse when the ambulance arrived.

The shop 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 started their case with the viral video, telling jurors that the time Chauvin knelt on Floyd would be “the most important number” they would hear. They built the case chronologically, calling upon fellow officers, paramedics and bystanders to mimic every step in Floyd’s eventual death.

Medical experts explained how Chauvin’s actions deprived Floyd of oxygen and killed him. Passers-by told jurors of the increasingly hectic calls for Chauvin to let Floyd breathe. One of them said he called the police to report his own agents.

Chauvin’s trial was notable for the number of police officers, inclusive Chief Medaria Arradondo, who testified against one of them, and dismisses the closed-mouth culture that has historically penetrated law enforcement. Members of the Minneapolis Police Department and other violence experts said Chauvin’s actions were “objectively unreasonable.”

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

The judges were impressed. The second-degree murder charge carries a maximum sentence of 40 years, and sentencing guidelines recommend 12 1/2 years. Chauvin was also convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree murder.

“I wouldn’t call today’s verdict justice, however, because justice really is redress,” said Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general who led the prosecution, at an evening press conference. “It’s accountability, the first step to justice.”

Chauvin’s conviction is the basis for the upcoming trial of the other officers at the scene of the deaths of Floyd, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who are accused of complicity in the murder. But the case will have ramifications far beyond Minneapolis.

“The world really had a chance to see justice being done,” said Sharon Fairley, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who founded the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. The incident itself sparked a debate about 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 the police lead to charges or convictions

Data: Philip M. Stinson, Bowling Green State University

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

Former President Donald Trump infuriated Democrats last June by celebrating a jobs report he said was a “great day” for Floyd looking down from the sky, and later retweeted a supporter who said Floyd was “not a good person. ” used to be.

The conflict only grew more bitter. Protests engulfed the US, often starting peacefully and turning into violence after dark.

Flashpoint campaign

Even as Trump tried to win his support with disdain for the Black Lives Matter movement, Joe Biden defended Americans who marched peacefully for justice and chose as his running mate the first African American and South Asian woman, Kamala Harris.

The political impact came after the November elections in a new democratic congress. In March, the House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which bans stricture, bans so-called no-knock warrants, and removes the “qualified immunity” protections that officers receive in court cases. The move faces an uncertain outlook in the 50-50 Senate, where Republicans have enough votes to block most legislation.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, a former district attorney in the county where the trial took place, said in a statement that the verdict should prompt federal lawmakers to pass laws requiring changes in police practices.

“It has been a long time since the Senate has made progress and passed police reform to hold officers accountable for misconduct, increase transparency of police practices and improve police behavior and training, including banning chokeholds,” she said. “This is the urgent task ahead – not for tomorrow, not for next year, but for now.”

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican senator, said, “The verdict only confirms that our justice system is becoming more and more fair.” He said he saw a way forward for a bill that would require de-escalation training for local police officers and increase the use of body cameras.