Chauvin guilty verdict
White officer Derek Chauvin who was filmed kneeling on 46-year-old African-American Mr George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, sparking mass protest against racism, was found guilty on Tuesday of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Sentencing is likely to happen in 8 weeks, and Chauvin could spend decades in jail, although he is expected to appeal against the verdict.
One local resident told she felt grateful and relived, while another said “ there’s some form of justice that is coming.”
Police officers have rarely been convicted= if they are charged at all for deaths that occur in custody, and the verdict in the trial has been widely seen as an indication of how the US legal system will treat such cases in future.
According to reports, one of the most likely avenues of appeal is the huge publicity given to the case, with the defence team arguing that this might have influenced the jury.
Peter Cahil, the presiding Judge of the three-week highly charged trial in which 45 witnesses took the stand revealing several hours of video footage, said on Monday that public comments by Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Water who urged protesters to “ stay on the street “ and “ get more confrontational” if Chauvin was acquitted, could be grounds for an appeal.
Chauvin himself chose not to testify, invoking his right to not incriminate himself with his responses.
The video of George Floyd’s murder that went viral revealed to the world the scourge of police brutality, a disease America has never been able to cure. In the early sixties, the sight of police dogs lunging at protestors in Birmingham, Alabama contributed to the passage of legislation that demolished southern segregation. The pictures of police clubbing protesters in Selma, Alabama led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
However, African-Americans will see justice in this verdict, but so many are looking for fairness and equality in all the aspects of their lives.
It took the 12-member jury less than a day to reach their verdict. Chauvin whose face was obscured with a coronavirus mask, showed little reaction as the verdict was read, remaining quiet and looking around the room. His bail was revoked and he was led out of the courtroom with hands cuffed behind his back.
In a phone call with Mr. Floyd’s family after the verdict was announced, the president Joe Biden was heard saying: “ At least now there is some justice. 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.”
Vice President Kamala Harris urged lawmakers to pass George Floyd bill aimed at reforming policing in the US. “The bill is part of George Floyd’s legacy. This work is long overdue,” she said.
George Floyd bought a pack of cigarettes at a convenience store in South Minneapolis on the evening of 25 May 2020, but a shop assistant believed he had used a counterfeit $20 note and called the police after Mr Floyd refused to give the cigarettes back. When police arrived, they ordered Mr Floyd out of his parked car and handcuffed him, and a struggle ensued when officers tried to put a screaming Mr Floyd in their squad car. They wrestled him to the ground and pinned him under their weight. Chauvin pressed his knee into the back of Mr Floyd’s neck for nine minutes 25 seconds. As he was being restrained, Mr Floyd said more than 20 times that he could not breathe, pleading for his mother and begging “ please, please, please”. When the ambulance arrive, Mr Floyd was motionless. He was pronounced dead about an hour later.