Derek Chauvin was found guilty on two counts of murder for killing George Floyd, by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes, a crime that incited a wave of worldwide protests in support of racial justice.
Members of the jury, seven women and seven men — six of whom were white, four were black and two were multiracial — took ten hours to deliberate their verdict. The jury unanimously convicted Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, with second and third-degree murder and manslaughter, concluding that Chauvin killed the unarmed Floyd through criminal assault.
Chauvin faces 40 years in prison, but is likely to receive a shorter sentence per legal guidelines. Chauvin did not testify at the trial.
With second-degree murder, the most serious of the three charges laid against Chauvin, prosecutors were required to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Chauvin caused Floyd’s death whilst committing or attempting to commit a felony — in the case of this trial, physical assault.
“It is not necessary for the state to prove the defendant had an intent to kill George Floyd,” trial Judge Peter Cahill told the jury. “But it must prove that the defendant committed, or attempted to commit, the underlying felony.”
The prosecution put forward a case to the jury that Chauvin exceeded his authority and training in pressing his knee into Floyd’s next for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Medical specialists outlined that the combined weight of Chauvin and two other police officials would have had the effect of “grinding and crushing him until the very breath, the very life, was squeezed out of him”.
Pulmonologist Dr Martin Tobin gave a harrowing testimony, outlining Floyd’s struggle to breathe in the position he was held in.
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“It’s like the left side is in a vice. It’s being pushed in from the street at the bottom and the way the handcuffs are manipulated … totally interfere with central features of how we breathe,” he said.
Tobin told the jury that for nearly five minutes, Floyd was speaking, which indicates that “that his oxygen levels were enough to keep his brain alive”.
The third-degree murder charge required the prosecution to prove Chauvin has unintentionally caused Floyd’s death, acting with “reckless disregard for human life”.
Whilst the second-degree manslaughter charge saw prosecutors argue that Chauvin created unreasonable risk through actions that could cause death or bodily harm to Floyd.
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.
“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,” Ben Crump, the Floyd family’s attorney, said in a statement.
“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.”
George Floyd’s brother told MSNBC: “I’m feeling tears of joy, so emotional.”
Chauvin is the second police officer in Minnesota history to be convicted of murder for an on-duty killing. The other being, Mohamed Noor, a police officer who shot Australian woman Justine Damond outside her Minneapolis home, who was convicted back in 2019.
This story is developing…
