George Floyd: Jury finds Derek Chauvin guilty of murder
A US jury has found a former police officer guilty of murder over the death of African-American George Floyd on a Minneapolis street last year.
Derek Chauvin, 45, was filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes during his arrest last May.
The widely watched footage sparked worldwide protests against racism and excessive use of force by police.
Chauvin was found guilty on three charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
He will remain in custody until he is sentenced and could spend decades in jail.
The 12-member jury took less than a day to reach their verdict, which followed a highly-charged, three-week trial that left Minneapolis on edge.
After both sides presented closing arguments on Monday, the jury was isolated in a hotel with no outside contact so they could deliberate on a verdict, a process known as sequestration.
Jurors had to agree unanimously and were told they could not return home until they had made their decision.
The verdict prompted celebratory scenes outside the court, where several hundred people cheered as it was announced.
The Floyd family's lawyer, Ben Crump, said it marked a "turning point in history" for the US.
"Painfully earned justice has finally arrived," he tweeted. [It] sends a clear message on the need for accountability of law enforcement."
President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris called the Floyd family right after the verdict.
Mr Biden was heard saying that "at least now there is some justice".
"We're gonna get a lot more done. This is going to be a first shot at dealing with genuine systemic racism," the president said.
And in a nationally televised remarks shortly afterwards, Mr Biden said: "Systemic racism is a stain on the whole nation's soul."
Meanwhile, Ms Harris urged lawmakers to pass the George Floyd bill aimed at reforming policing in the US. "This bill is part of George Floyd's legacy. This work is long overdue," she said.
The Minneapolis police federation, a not-for-profit organisation representing police - thanked the jury for their "dedicated work" shouldering "an enormous burden".
"We also want to reach out to the community and still express our deep remorse for their pain, as we feel it every day as well. There are no winners in this case and we respect the jury's decision," the federation said.
"We need the political pandering to stop and the race-baiting of elected officials to stop."
Chauvin is expected to appeal against the verdict, US media report.
They say 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.
Also, Presiding Judge Peter Cahill said on Monday that public comments by Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters could be grounds for an appeal.
Over the weekend, Ms Waters had urged protesters to "stay on the street" and "get more confrontational" if Chauvin were acquitted.
On hearing the verdict, people were screaming and cheering, and a little girl in a pink coat held up a tiny fist, in jubilation.
"It's a good day in Minneapolis," says 21-year-old Kenneth Nwachi. "It's a blessing."
Activists say justice has been done, and they will feel as though a weight has been lifted from their shoulders.
Their relief is shared by many in the city, a place that has been on edge for months. It is a landmark case for police use of force against black people, and the verdict marks a significant break with the past.
Few officers are charged with manslaughter or murder, and fewer still are convicted.
But protesters say the calls for justice for George Floyd do not stop after this verdict.
What happened to George Floyd?
The 46-year-old bought a pack of cigarettes at a convenience store in South Minneapolis on the evening of 25 May 2020.
A shop assistant believed he had used a counterfeit $20 bill 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. 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 over nine minutes, as the suspect and several bystanders pleaded for his life.
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 arrived, Mr Floyd was motionless. He was pronounced dead about an hour later.
What happened during the trial?
During Chauvin's trial, the jury heard from 45 witnesses and saw several hours of video footage.
Some of the most powerful testimony came from eyewitnesses. Several broke down in tears as they watched graphic footage of the incident and described feeling "helpless" as events unfolded.
Courteney Ross, Mr Floyd's girlfriend of three years, and Philonise Floyd, his younger sibling, also took the stand to share details of the victim's background.
Expert witnesses on behalf of the state testified that Mr Floyd died from a lack of oxygen due to the manner of restraint employed by Chauvin and his colleagues.
Chauvin himself chose not to testify, invoking his right to not incriminate himself with his responses.
What are the charges?
Manslaughter is when someone unintentionally causes another person's death.
In second-degree murder, the act that led to someone's death could have been intentional or unintentional. The maximum sentence for this charge is 40 years in prison.
Third-degree murder means that an individual has acted in a way that endangered one or more people, ending in death.
Police officers have rarely been convicted - if they are charged at all - for deaths that occur in custody, and the verdict in this trial has been widely seen as an indication of how the US legal system will treat such cases in future.
How did the jury reach its decision?
Twelve jurors were tasked with deciding if Chauvin would face time in jail or be acquitted.
The entire jury remained anonymous and unseen throughout the trial, but its demographics skewed younger, more white and more female.
After both sides presented closing arguments on Monday, the jury was isolated in a hotel with no outside contact so they could deliberate on a verdict, a process known as sequestration.
Jurors had to agree on a unanimous verdict and were told they could not return home until they had made their decision.
Derek Chauvin found guilty of murder in the death of George Floyd
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted Tuesday on all counts against him in the killing of George Floyd, nearly one year after kneeling on Floyd’s neck in an incident that sparked global protests against police brutality.
[Click here for live updates on the verdict.]
After less than 12 hours of deliberations, the jury returned guilty verdicts against Chauvin, finding him guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd on May 25, 2020.
Under Minnesota law, Chauvin can appeal his conviction after the court enters the judgment and he receives his sentence. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill said sentencing will take place in eight weeks. Chauvin's bail was revoked and he was remanded to custody.
The verdict was met with applause from observers outside the courthouse. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the prosecution of Chauvin, gave a press conference shortly after the verdict was read and praised the bystanders who testified at the trial.
"They performed simple, yet profound, acts of courage," Ellison said. "They told the truth and they told the whole world the truth about what they saw."
Jerry Blackwell, a member of the trial team, said that no verdict can bring Floyd back.
"But this verdict does give a message to his family, that he was somebody," Blackwell said. That his life mattered. That all of our lives matter. And that's important."
Chauvin was accused of murdering Floyd by keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck — depriving Floyd of oxygen — during an arrest. Over the course of the 14-day trial, jurors heard from more than 40 witnesses from both the state and Chauvin’s defense team and viewed video footage from the incident, including that filmed by police body cameras.
Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck despite Floyd’s cries for help and acted against Minneapolis Police Department policies when he restrained Floyd — an assertion that was supported by several high-ranking police officials who testified that Chauvin’s conduct was unnecessary and excessive.
“On May 25, 2020, Derek Chauvin put his knees upon [Floyd’s] neck and back, grinding and crushing him until the very breath, the very life, was squeezed out of him,” Blackwell told jurors on the first day of the trial. “You will learn what happened in that nine minutes and 29 seconds, the most important numbers you will hear at this trial.”
Medical experts testified for the state that Floyd died from a lack of oxygen in his body, with one expert saying his breathing was restricted so severely that it was almost as if a lung were removed.
Jurors also heard emotional testimony from the bystanders who witnessed Floyd’s death outside the Cup Foods convenience store and from people who knew him, including his girlfriend, Courteney Batay Ross, and his brother, Philonise.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that Floyd died from multiple causes, not solely from Chauvin’s actions. Floyd had underlying heart disease and hypertension, Nelson said, and also had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, according to the autopsy from the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office. One medical expert for the defense said he wouldn’t classify Floyd’s death as a homicide, opting to instead deem it “undetermined,” due to the contributing factors in Floyd’s death.
Nelson also argued that Floyd was combative and resistant when police tried to apprehend him. Video shows that Floyd refused to get into the back of the police vehicle before officers pinned him to the ground. Besides Floyd’s resistance, Nelson said, there was an angry crowd of bystanders that was growing more hostile during the incident.
“So what does Chauvin see?” Nelson said, attempting to put jurors in his client’s shoes. “He sees Officer [J. Alexander] Kueng and Officer [Thomas] Lane struggling with Mr. Floyd, attempting to put him into the car. A reasonable police officer is observing this with his eyes and his ears and assessing what he sees pursuant to policy. And what he sees at a minimum is active resistance. Mr. Floyd’s not just simply getting in the backseat of the car.”
With everyone from Floyd’s family to the White House watching, Chauvin’s trial had high stakes for the country, due to the immense impact of Floyd’s death.
During the trial, police departments prepared for potential unrest after the verdict, some of which has already occurred in the wake of other, recent killings at the hands of police. It remains to be seen if the verdict will lead to more demonstrations.
The jury’s verdict might not be the end of the Chauvin case. Nelson raised multiple objections before and throughout the trial that could form the basis of a strong appeal, according to David Schultz, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and professor at Hamline University.
“I am convinced that if there’s a guilty verdict, the defense has laid the groundwork for an appeal on the argument of saying that it was impossible to get a fair trial in this atmosphere,” Schultz told Yahoo News before the verdict.
“Even before jury selection starts, you’ve got the request for a change of venue,” he continued. “You’ve got the intensity of the coverage. You’ve got the concerns [that], perhaps that if a jury acquits, are there going to be riots? Then we throw in the Minneapolis settlement with the Floyd family. The [Daunte Wright] shooting, Rep. Maxine Waters’s comments.”
Waters, D-Calif., attended a Black Lives Matter rally in Brooklyn Center, Minn., this past weekend and said that activists should “get more confrontational” if Chauvin is not convicted of murder, Yahoo News’ Marquise Francis reported.
“I hope we get a verdict that says guilty, guilty, guilty,” Waters said Saturday in response to a reporter’s question. “And if we don’t, we cannot go away. We’ve got to stay on the street. We get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
Nelson flagged the comments Monday as he asked Judge Cahill for a mistrial. Cahill denied that request but acknowledged that Waters’s comments were inappropriate.
“Well, I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned,” Cahill
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