Derek Chauvin faces decades in jail for the murder of George Floyd

Minneapolis: Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who was filmed kneeling on the neck of black Minneapolis resident George Floyd last May, faces decades in jail after being found guilty of two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter.

The jury verdict, one of the most keenly anticipated in recent American history, was welcomed as a watershed moment for police accountability in the United States.

Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin is taken into custody as his lawyer, Eric Nelson, left, looks on, after the verdicts were read.Credit: AP

Graphic mobile phone footage of Floyd’s death sparked protests against racial injustice across the world and triggered a national debate on police reform.

Democrats in the US Congress said they would move to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill introduced after Floyd’s death that would ban police chokeholds at a federal level and allow police to use deadly force only as a last resort. “We must move urgently to defeat systemic racism in all its forms and the Senate must pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said.

Chauvin, a 19-year police force veteran, was found guilty on all three charges laid against him: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

After the verdict, relieved Minneapolis residents rushed to George Floyd Square, the site of Floyd’s death, to celebrate the rare occasion of an American police officer being convicted of killing a civilian while on duty.

A brass band, playing When the Saints Go Marching In, created a festive atmosphere, even as activist speakers warned the crowd that the nation still had a long to go to achieve racial equality.

Chauvin, who had been free on bail for the past several months, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. Prosecutors are seeking to prove the existence of aggravating circumstances that would justify an increase in the prison term recommended by Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines. The most serious charge carries up to 40 years in prison. He’ll be sentenced in about two months.

The members of the jury, seven women and five men, took about 10 hours to reach their verdict. Six of the jurors were white, four were black and two were multiracial.

People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minneapolis.Credit: AP

‘Turning point’

Ben Crump, the Floyd family’s lawyer, reacted to the verdict by saying: “Painfully earned justice has arrived for George Floyd’s family and the community here in Minneapolis, but today’s verdict goes far beyond this city and has significant implications for the country and even the world.

“Justice for black America is justice for all of America.

“This case is a turning point in American history for accountability of law enforcement and sends a clear message we hope is heard clearly in every city and every state.”

Floyd’s brother Rodney told MSNBC: “I’m feeling tears of joy, so emotional.”

Another brother, Philonise Floyd, later said: “Today, we are able to breathe again.”

In public comments after the verdict, US President Joe Biden called the death of Floyd “a murder in the full light of day and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism.

“The systemic racism is a stain on our nation’s soul.”

“Today’s verdict is a step forward.”

Vice-President Kamala Harris, accompanied by President Joe Biden, speaks on the verdict. Credit: AP

Biden said nothing could ever bring back Floyd but “this can be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America”.

“We 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 and occur again,” he said.

Kamala Harris, the first black vice-president in US history, said, “Black men are fathers and brothers and sons and uncles and grandfathers and friends and neighbours.

“Their lives must be valued in our education system, in our healthcare system, in our housing system, in our economics system, in our criminal justice system. In our nation. Full stop.”

Gail Russell, 68, falls to her knees and proclaims “Thank you, Jesus” at Gloria’s Corner Store in New Orleans, as she listens to the verdict on TV.Credit: AP

Immediately after the verdict was handed down, Biden phoned Floyd’s family and said of himself and Harris: “We’re all so relieved.”

Asked by a family member how he was doing, Biden said, “Feeling better now. Nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now there is some justice.”

“This is a day of justice,” Harris told the family after joining Biden to watch the verdict in the private dining room off the Oval Office.

A cacophony of celebration broke out in downtown Minneapolis, as a Hennepin County judge read the guilty verdicts.

Hundreds gathered outside the courthouse, which had been enclosed in razor wire, many playing live feed from inside the courthouse on their phones. The crowd fell silent as Judge Peter Cahill read the verdict, and members pressed ears against their phones to hear the stream. As the news swept over the group, they erupted in jubilation.

“Guilty!” they roared. “All three! All three!” shouted Dominic Powell, 33, who hopped on the back of a pick-up truck and waved a Black Lives Matter flag. Drivers listening to the news on their radios joined in by blasting their horns.

“I’m just shaking,” said her friend Prisca Diyoka, 26. “It was overwhelming all last summer, processing this. We fought for something and we got what we fought for.”

Earlier in the day, Biden said he had spoken to the Floyd family and was “praying the verdict is the right verdict”.

“I think it is overwhelming in my view,” he said, stressing that he had not commented on the trial until the jury had been sequestered.

Outside the courtroom Courtney Ross, who was Floyd’s girlfriend, said: “He was funny and silly and prayerful and a man of God.

“He was out of this world.”

Ongoing case

At the federal level, Attorney-General Merrick Garland said in the statement the Justice Department’s investigation into Floyd’s death remained “ongoing”, suggesting it was still possible that Chauvin and others could face federal civil rights charges.

Garland said the jury in Chauvin’s trial on state charges had “fulfilled its civic duty” and noted, “while the state’s prosecution was successful, I know that nothing can fill the void that the loved ones of George Floyd have felt since his death.

“The Justice Department has previously announced a federal civil rights investigation into the death of George Floyd,” Garland said.

The Justice Department often investigates incidents in which police officers kill those in their custody as possible civil rights violations, though state manslaughter, murder or assault charges are generally easier to prove.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections said on Tuesday night that Chauvin was at the state’s maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights, due to an arrangement with the county sheriff and the Department of Corrections.

That’s the same prison where Chauvin was moved after his arrest for security reasons.

Mohamed Noor

Chauvin is only the second known police officer in Minnesota’s history to be convicted of murder for an on-duty killing. The first was Mohamed Noor in 2019, the police officer who shot dead Australian woman Justine Damond outside her Minneapolis home two years earlier.

Second-degree murder, the most serious of Chauvin’s three charges, required prosecutors to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Chauvin caused Floyd’s death while committing or attempting to commit another felony – in this case, a physical assault.

“It is not necessary for the state to prove the defendant had an intent to kill George Floyd,” the judge told the jury. “But it must prove that the defendant committed, or attempted to commit, the underlying felony.”

The third-degree murder charge required the prosecution to prove that Chauvin had unintentionally caused Floyd’s death while acting with “reckless disregard for human life”.

The second-degree manslaughter charge required proof that Chauvin had created an unreasonable risk by consciously behaving in a way that could cause death or great bodily harm to someone else.

Chauvin did not testify during the trial, instead choosing to invoke his right not to incriminate himself, by pleading the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution.

with TNS, Washington Post, AP

World news

A note direct from our foreign correspondents about what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here.