A month after the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin into the murder of George Floyd last May began, a unanimous jury delivered a verdict on Tuesday, finding Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. The verdict offered a sign of optimism that America was progressing toward a future in which people of all races would be treated fairly and equally and where police officers would be held accountable for their actions.
After almost a grueling month since the trial began on March 29 at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, in which the prosecution called in 38 witnesses over 11 days of testimony and where the defense called in seven witnesses over two days of testimony, a 12-member jury handed down a verdict on Tuesday, where Chauvin was found guilty of numerous murder charges in relation to the killing of George Floyd.
Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man living in Minneapolis, who was arrested over suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill on May 25, 2020, died after Chauvin, a white man, knelt on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, during which Floyd pleaded for the officer to stop and calling out “I can’t breathe” numerous times throughout.
Floyd’s death, the process of which was recorded by a teenage girl, sparked nationwide protests calling out systemic racism against Black people in America and demanding an end to police brutality, racism, and lack of accountability.
The verdict, which can carry a maximum sentence of up to 75 years, is a rare case in which a police officer was found guilty of killing people, especially Black people, while on duty. Of the over 1,100 deaths caused by police officers on duty each year, only about 1 percent of all cases saw a police officer being charged with murder or manslaughter.
Chauvin will be sentenced in eight weeks’ time. The presumptive sentence for both murder charges for first-time offenders is 12.5 years, but the prosecution is seeking a longer sentence.
Of all the witnesses the prosecution called, the starring witness was Medaria Arradondo, the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department. He said that Chauvin had “absolutely” violated training, ethics, and department policies over Floyd’s arrest. It is virtually unheard of for a police chief to testify in court against an officer from his own department.
Even as cases of police brutality continue to emerge from the news constantly, like the deaths of three Black people — one in Brooklyn Center, Minn., a Minneapolis suburb, and two others in Chicago and Columbus, Ohio — the verdict proved that America’s criminal justice system functioned at a time in which that very system itself was on trial.
President Joe Biden welcomed the jury’s decision. “I can’t breathe. Those were George Floyd’s last words. We can’t let those words die with him. We have to keep hearing those words. We must not turn away. We can’t turn away,” he said, underscoring that “this can be a moment of significant change.”
Biden had been concerned about the potential for more unrest in the event that Chauvin was not found guilty, and he said he was relieved by the decision. However, he acknowledged that such a verdict was “much too rare” and that it was far from enough to cure the issue of systemic racism, which he called “a stain on our nation’s soul,” in the United States, nor would it bring Floyd back from the dead.
Vice President Kamala Harris was also relieved by the verdict. “Today, we feel a sigh of relief. Still, it cannot take away the pain. A measure of justice is not the same as equal justice,” and called on the Senate to pass a police reform bill, titled the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” which she sponsored during her time in the Senate.
Chauvin’s lawyers are highly likely to appeal this conviction, over the grounds of the trial being too publicized and tainting the jurors in the process since presiding Judge Peter Cahill refused to move the case out of Minneapolis or shield the jury from any news or mention over the case during the trial. Cahill had refused to sequester the jury even after Daunte Wright, another Black man, was killed in Minneapolis suburb Brooklyn Center just 10 miles from the Chauvin trial, which sparked protests, and after Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., demanded a guilty verdict and called for more protests against police violence.
However, it would be exceedingly difficult to find that many people willing to spend over a month away from their families in isolation without access to the internet or the media, and so Cahill’s decision to deny the defense such requests was not misguided. In addition, more than 90 percent of all appeals are rejected in the U.S., and Chauvin’s grounds of appeal are slim.