- Derek Chauvin asks Minnesota Supreme Court to review his murder conviction, weeks after appeals court denied his request for a new trial CNN
- Man who witnessed George Floyd murder by police suing Minneapolis over officers’ actions Yahoo News
- Derek Chauvin appeals conviction in George Floyd murder to Minnesota Supreme Court Fox News
- Keith Ellison to publish George Floyd trial diary Tuesday, with intro by Floyd’s brother Star Tribune
- Former police officer, Derek Chauvin convicted of killing George Floyd appeals conviction Yahoo News
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Tag Archives: Chauvin
Derek Chauvin sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for murder of George Floyd
Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for the murder of George Floyd.
The sentence means Chauvin, 46, will leave a state prison where he has been kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for the past 15 months and be allowed to move to a federal prison.
Judge Paul Magnuson told Chauvin during the civil rights violation sentencing that to “put your knee on another person’s neck until they’re deceased is wrong”.
“And for that you must be substantially punished.”
Prosecutors and Mr Floyd’s family had sought the maximum 25 years on the grounds that Chauvin’s actions were cold-blooded and needless.
The defence had asked for 20 years, saying Chauvin had accepted responsibility for what he did.
Mr Floyd, 46, died on 25 May 2020 after Chauvin pinned him to the ground with his knee on his neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds in Minneapolis. Mr Floyd had been accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store.
His killing sparked protests across the United States, a reckoning over police brutality and racism, and galvanised the Black Lives Matter movement.
Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after a trial in April 2021 and sentenced to 22.5 years in a state prison in June that year.
During Thursday’s sentencing, Chauvin made a brief statement in which he addressed Mr Floyd’s children.
“I just want to say that I wish them all the best in their life and have excellent guidance in becoming great adults.” he said.
The court also heard victim impact statements from members of Mr Floyd’s family including his brother Philonese Floyd and girlfriend Courtney Ross.
Another statement came from John Pope, who sued the city of Minneapolis over an incident in 2017 when he was struck with a flashlight and held in a chokehold by Chauvin.
Demonstrators hold signs honouring George Floyd and other victims of racism as they gather during a protest outside Hennepin County Government Centre on 28 March 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
((AFP via Getty Images))
Chauvin pleaded guilty to using excessive force on Mr Pope, then aged 14, as part of his plea deal.
“I hope he takes this time to think about what he could have done differently and what he did to others,” Mr Pope said.
Chauvin’s mother Carolyn Pawlenty also made a statement, criticising “misinformation” that her son was racist.
“Everyone in Minnesota needs to heal and realise that all lives matter, no matter the color of your skin. Every life matters,” Ms Pawlenty said.
Defence attorney Eric Nelson said there was much more to Chauvin than his actions on 25 May 2020, adding he was a “staunch family man”.
Prosecutor LeeAnn Bell had argued that Chauvin’s actions showed he had intentionally killed Mr Floyd.
“He wasn’t a rookie. He’d been a police officer for years. He knew what his training was. He knew what he was doing was wrong and he did it anyway.”
Judge Magnuson sentenced Chauvin to 252 months minus seven months for time served.
He added that Chauvin had “absolutely destroyed the lives of three other young officers” who have also been criminally prosecuted over Mr Floyd’s death.
The former Minneapolis police officers — Tou Thao, J. Alexander Keung and Thomas Lane — were convicted in February of federal civil rights charges in Floyd’s killing. Judge Magnuson has not set sentencing dates for them.
Chauvin will also have to pay restitution.
No filming or photographs were allowed inside the federal courthouse in St Paul.
In entering his federal guilty plea, Chauvin for the first time admitted that he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck — even as the Black man’s pleaded, “I can’t breathe,” and then became unresponsive — resulting in Mr Floyd’s death.
Flowers, signs and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died in Minneapolis
(AFP via Getty Images)
Chauvin, who is white, admitted he willfully deprived Mr Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, including unreasonable force by a police officer, during the May 2020 arrest.
Since he was found guilty of murder in May 2021, Chauvin has been kept isolated from other inmates within the high-security Administrative Control Unit at Minnesota state prison Oak Park Heights
Chauvin had little freedom inside the facility, with no access to job opportunities and educational programmes, the official said.
He had to shower, go to the bathroom, eat and sleep inside his cell and is allowed out for just one hour a day for exercise.
After Thursday’s sentencing, Chauvin is expected to serve more time behind bars than he would have faced on the state sentence alone.
However, experts say Chauvin might be safer, and live under fewer restrictions, in a federal prison.
His security level and final destination will be up to the US Bureau of Prisons, which could send him anywhere in the country.
Chauvin ran the risk in the general population of a Minnesota state prison of encountering inmates he had arrested or investigated. While he can’t totally escape his notoriety in a federal prison elsewhere, he’s unlikely to encounter inmates with whom he has a direct connection.
If the bureau decides he’s safe enough in the general population, he’d have more opportunities to move about the facility, to work and to participate in programming.
With credit for good time in the federal system, he could serve around 17 years behind bars.
Associated Press contributed to this report
George Floyd Death: Derek Chauvin joked while restraining Floyd, former officer testifies
Citing body camera video transcripts, Assistant US Attorney Manda Sertich asked Kueng during cross-examination what he was laughing at on video. Kueng told the jury that a few days earlier, he and Chauvin had responded to an incident at a hospital involving a patient who was restrained and yelling that he could not breathe.
After a nurse had said, “it takes a lot of oxygen,” Chauvin said that he would use that line. Kueng referred to it as “a brief moment of levity.”
Kueng is one of three officers — including Tou Thao and Thomas Lane — standing trial in federal court for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
All three are each charged with deprivation of rights under color of law while Chauvin restrained Floyd. Thao and Kueng are also charged with willfully failing to intervene in Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, resulting in Floyd’s death.
The three have pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and are being tried together. Chauvin admitted guilt in December as part of a plea deal.
All three former officers will face a state trial later this year on charges of aiding and abetting in Floyd’s murder.
Kueng testified he could have performed CPR on Floyd
Sertich asked Kueng about the moments leading up to Floyd’s restraint and about his recollection of Floyd on the ground.
“I recall officer Chauvin saying we’re going to bring him down,” Kueng told the jury.
While displaying a Minneapolis Police Department training document titled “Conscious Neck Restraint,” Kueng said he had not been trained or aware of the “technique using the leg.”
“The senior officer must have been trained in it at some point,” Kueng continued, referring to Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck.
Sertich then attempted to show a portion of Thao’s bodycam video showing the scene about one minute into Floyd’s restraint. Kueng’s defense attorney, Thomas Plunkett, objected to the use of bodycam audio, claiming it showed a perspective Kueng was not aware of at the time.
Sertich asked if Kueng could see that Floyd had stopped moving at some point.
“Yes, at some point,” he replied, adding that Lane had said Floyd was passing out.
Kueng defined it as a medical concern, but not a “serious medical need,” as Sertich referred to it.
Sertich asked if it’s fair to say that Kueng could have performed CPR in his position while on the ground.
Kueng agreed, saying that they could have uncuffed him and secured the scene. He added that the paramedic seemed “quite casual” when he arrived.
Kueng testified he had little experience handling large individuals
Kueng testified he had little experience handling large individuals resisting arrest before the fatal encounter with Floyd.
Citing a December 2019 call for service involving an intoxicated person striking people at a bar, Sertich asked Kueng if the man continued to resist arrest after being handcuffed.
“After he was handcuffed, that arrestee kept resisting right?” Sertich asked.
“I think so ma’am, to some degree, yes,” Kueng responded.
Sertich asked if he and the other two officers with him in 2019 tried to get the handcuffed subject into an upright position while he continued to resist arrest.
“Yes ma’am,” Kueng responded.
George Floyd Death: Former officer snaps at prosecutor when asked why he didn’t try to get Derek Chauvin off George Floyd
“I think I would trust a 19-year veteran to figure it out,” Thao said on the stand.
Thao is one of three officers — including J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — standing trial in federal court for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
All three are each charged with deprivation of rights under color of law as Chauvin restrained Floyd. Thao and Kueng are also charged with willfully failing to intervene in Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, resulting in Floyd’s death.
All three former officers will face a state trial later this year on charges of aiding and abetting in Floyd’s murder.
Kueng and Thao told US District Judge Paul Magnuson on Monday they planned to testify in their own defense.
Lane, the rookie officer who held down Floyd’s legs during the fatal restraint, told the judge Tuesday that he also planned to take the stand. His attorney Earl Gray had told Magnuson a day earlier he wanted to speak with Lane about it before giving a final decision.
Kueng is expected to take the stand after Thao.
Prosecutor grew frustrated during Thao’s testimony
Assistant US Attorney LeeAnn Bell had been pressing Thao on his reasoning for not interfering in Chauvin’s handling of Floyd, how often Thao faced toward his fellow officers during the restraint that lead to Floyd’s death and whether Thao took any action to assess Floyd’s medical condition, including when he was asked to do so by a bystander.
“Did you communicate to your partners what you were being told by the bystanders,” Bell asked.
“No,” Thao replied.
Bell also asked Thao if he knew when Floyd stopped breathing, but defense attorney Robert Paule objected to the question. It was one of a dozen objections during Wednesday morning’s cross-examination. Bell seemingly became frustrated at the number of times she had to pause and rephrase her questions due to the number of objections.
“Did you hear him talking during the fifth minute or not?” Bell pressed.
“It’s a possibility,” Thao said. When asked if he could confirm if he noticed Floyd’s eyes were closed, Thao said he couldn’t tell.
Bell continued asking Thao about his knowledge of Floyd’s medical condition, of which Paule continued to vehemently object.
During redirect, Paule asked Thao why he thought it was necessary to restrain Floyd.
Thao said that one of the purposes for restraining Floyd was to protect him from potentially getting up and injuring himself or bystanders, adding the measure was partly done “to save his life.”
“Were your intentions in any way to cause Mr. Floyd harm?” Paule asked.
“Oh no,” Thao responded.
Defense attorneys also called Thao’s wife, Sheng Yang, to testify later Wednesday morning. Yang told the jury her husband “had never gotten into trouble before with the law,” and that Thao had never even received a parking ticket.
After Bell objected to the relevance of the questioning, Judge Magnuson instructed Paule to move on saying “we aren’t going into speeding tickets. I assure you of that.”
Thao said using a knee was commonplace in MPD
During his testimony Tuesday, Thao testified that an officer using their knee to restrain a suspect was taught at the police academy. He also said he assumed other officers were “taking care” of Floyd while he was helping control the crowd.
Paule showed the jury several photographs from Thao’s time in the police academy that pictured instructors using their knees to subdue and arrest subjects during training exercises.
Calling one such photo a “handcuffing drill,” Thao said it was common practice to be taught how to subdue people in a prone position while using a knee to control the person.
“Do you see if those two officers are using their knees?” Paule asked Thao.
“They are,” Thao responded.
One photo showed a use-of-force instructor smiling while his knee is on the neck of the subject in the exercise.
“Is this something that was typically taught at the academy while you were there?” Paule continued.
“Yes,” Thao responded.
When asked why a knee would be used in the exercises, Thao said it was “to prevent them from rolling around or get up.”
During the incident that led to Floyd’s death, Thao testified that even though he had been waived off from responding to the scene after other officers had arrived, he decided to continue assisting.
“From my experience, Cup Foods is hostile to police,” he told the jury. “It’s a well-known Bloods gang hangout.”
Thao said he thought “it was obvious” Floyd was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, partly because he was “very sweaty.”
As the scene grew more tense and chaotic, Thao testified his role shifted to becoming a “human traffic cone,” ensuring that cars would not hit the officers and the ambulance that had been called could easily spot them.
“I knew the crowd was starting to gather up and cause issues,” Thao said. “At that point, I have a different role, which is to do crowd control to allow them to attend to Mr. Floyd.”
Juror dismissed due to stomach flu
A juror was dismissed Wednesday because they contracted the stomach flu or had eaten something and as a result is ill,” Judge Magnuson said.
The juror was one of the five alternates, court spokeswoman Rebeccah Parks confirmed to CNN.
The 12 juror panel is still comprised of five men and seven women. There are now four alternates, one man and three women.
This is the second juror to be dismissed in the case. Last week a juror was released after disclosing that his son is dealing with a serious mental health issue.
Chauvin pleads guilty to federal charge in Floyd’s death
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of violating George Floyd’s civil rights, admitting for the first time that he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck — even after he became unresponsive — resulting in the Black man’s death.
Chauvin, who is white, was convicted this spring of state murder and manslaughter charges in Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death, and was sentenced to 22 1/2 years.
In his federal plea Wednesday, Chauvin admitted he willfully deprived Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, including unreasonable force by a police officer, by kneeling on Floyd’s neck even though he was handcuffed and not resisting. A second federal count in Floyd’s death was dismissed, but Chauvin pleaded guilty to another count in an unrelated 2017 case.
Chauvin appeared in person for the change of plea hearing in an orange short-sleeve prison shirt and was led into and out of the court in handcuffs. He said “Guilty, your honor” to confirm his pleas, and acknowledged that he committed the acts alleged.
Chauvin could have faced life in prison on the federal count, one possible incentive for him to avoid trial. Under the plea agreement, both sides agreed Chauvin should face a sentence ranging from 20 to 25 years, with prosecutors saying they would seek 25. The final sentence will be up to U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, but Chauvin is likely to face more time behind bars than he would on the state charges alone.
With good behavior, Chauvin’s state sentence would have amounted to 15 years behind bars before he became eligible for parole. A federal sentence would run at the same time, and good behavior also can reduce time — but inmates typically serve about 85% of their sentences.
That means if Chauvin gets the 25 years prosecutors want, he would likely spend 21 years and three months in prison — or roughly six years longer behind bars than his state sentence alone.
Three other former officers — Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao — were indicted on federal charges alongside Chauvin.
Floyd’s arrest and death, which a bystander captured on cellphone video, sparked mass protests nationwide calling for an end to racial inequality and police mistreatment of Black people.
Chauvin also pleaded guilty to violating the rights of a 14-year-old boy during a 2017 arrest in which he held the boy by the throat, hit him in the head with a flashlight and held his knee on the boy’s neck and upper back while he was prone, handcuffed and not resisting.
That was one of several cases mentioned in state court filings that prosecutors said showed Chauvin used neck or head and upper body restraints seven times dating back to 2014, including four times state prosecutors said they went beyond the point force was needed.
Several members of Floyd’s family were present Wednesday, as was the teenager in the 2017 arrest. As they left the courtroom, Floyd’s brother Philonise said to the teen: “It’s a good day for justice.”
Nine people came to support Chauvin, including family members. He waved and smiled at them as he entered and left the courtroom.
George Floyd’s nephew, Brandon Williams, afterward called Chauvin a “monster” who should have been arrested in 2017.
“Had he been held accountable for what he did in 2017 to that minor, George Floyd would still be here,” Williams said. “Today he had a chance to blow kisses and give air hugs to his family. We can’t do that.”
An attorney for Floyd’s family, Jeff Storms, said they planned to head to Minneapolis later Wednesday to support the family of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was fatally shot in a traffic stop during Chauvin’s state trial. The police officer in that case, Kim Potter, is on trial on manslaughter charges.
To bring federal charges in deaths involving police, prosecutors must believe an officer acted under the “color of law,” or government authority, and willfully deprived someone of their constitutional rights. It’s a high legal standard, and an accident, bad judgment or negligence aren’t enough. Prosecutors have to prove the officer knew what he was doing was wrong in that moment but did it anyway.
Chauvin admitted that he knew what he did to Floyd was wrong and he had a “callous and wanton disregard” for Floyd’s life, the plea agreement said. It also said Chauvin “was aware that Mr. Floyd not only stopped resisting, but also stopped talking, stopped moving, stopped breathing, and lost consciousness and a pulse.”
According to evidence in the state case against Chauvin, Kueng and Lane helped restrain the 46-year-old Floyd as he was on the ground — Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back and Lane held down Floyd’s legs. Thao held back bystanders and kept them from intervening during the 9 1/2-minute restraint.
All four former officers were charged broadly in federal court with depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority.
The other three former officers are still expected to go to trial on federal charges in January, and they face state trial on aiding and abetting counts in March.
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This story has been corrected to show Chauvin plea in Floyd’s death was to a single charge, with a second count dismissed.
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Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
Derek Chauvin pleads guilty in federal court to violating George Floyd’s civil rights
Chauvin also pleaded guilty in a separate federal case in which he was accused of depriving the rights of a 14-year-old in Minneapolis in 2017 for allegedly kneeling on the back and neck of a handcuffed, non-resisting teenager.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors requested that Chauvin be sentenced to 300 months in prison, or 25 years, to be served concurrently with his current 22 and a half year sentence on state murder charges.
The appearance came nearly 18 months after the former officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck and back for 9 minutes and 26 seconds while the 46-year-old Black man, handcuffed and lying prone in the street, gasped for air and told Chauvin and other officers, “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, sparked protests nationwide against police brutality and racial injustice.
Separate from his state murder case, Chauvin was charged in two federal indictments related to his policing. He had pleaded not guilty to the federal charges in September.
But on Wednesday, Chauvin appeared in federal court in St. Paul, Minnesota, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and admitted guilt. The hearing was not captured on video because cameras are not allowed in federal court.
Assistant US Attorney Allen Slaughter asked Chauvin to confirm details included in the plea agreement, specifically whether Chauvin held Floyd down on the ground even after Floyd became unresponsive.
“Correct,” Chauvin said to each question asked by the prosecutor.
US District Court Judge Paul Magnuson has not yet set a date for Chauvin’s sentencing.
Members of the Floyd family were present in the courtroom, as was the unidentified juvenile Chauvin admitted to assaulting in 2017. According to the pool reporter inside court, Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd turned to the juvenile after the hearing and said, “It’s a good day for justice.”
A first time admitting guilt
The guilty plea represents the first time Chauvin has publicly admitted his role in Floyd’s death, after he had pleaded not guilty to the state murder charges and exercised his right not to testify at trial.
Speaking outside of court, Philonese Floyd told CNN of the importance of Chauvin’s guilty plea.
“To me, this is big, because a blue wall fell, and it never falls,” he said. “It makes me feel better knowing that he is going be held accountable for what is going on.”
Other family members said they believed Chauvin pleaded guilty only because he had no other choice.
“I’m still feeling the same pain (and) anger I felt in the beginning, because he could have did this last year, started this on that day,” said Rodney Floyd, another one of Floyd’s brothers. “So today is the same pain.”
Terrence Floyd, another brother, said hearing the guilty plea “made me feel like, finally, you took accountability.”
“When he was pleading guilty, I know he knows why,” he said. “The fact still remains that he’s actually going to be in prison and he’s going to do time for what he did, so that’s good enough for me.”
The family’s civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, Antonio Romanucci and Jeff Storms said the guilty plea was part of a historic day.
“While in many ways today is a victory for the interest of justice, we will never forget its cost,” they said.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the murder case against Chauvin, issued a statement on the importance of the guilty plea.
“Today, Derek Chauvin took responsibility and admitted his guilt in open court, under penalty of perjury, for depriving George Floyd and a boy, then just 14 years old, of their civil rights. This is important and historic. His admissions mark another important moment of accountability and another step on the road to justice,” he said.
He also thanked the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota and the Department of Justice for bringing the case.
“George Floyd’s life mattered. That young man’s life matters. Nobody is above the law, and nobody is beneath it. While Floyd’s life is lost to his family and all of us, I hope Chauvin’s change of plea will mark a new beginning for equal justice under the law, respectful treatment for every person in our society, and greater trust in our system of justice,” Ellison said.
What the federal indictments alleged
The two federal indictments, unsealed in May, cover two separate incidents in which Chauvin kneeled on a person who was handcuffed and lying prone on their stomach. At his murder trial, medical experts testified that this position limits a person’s ability to breath in what’s known as positional asphyxia.
In the first federal indictment, Chauvin was accused of two counts connected to Floyd’s death, including depriving Floyd’s right to be free from “unreasonable seizure, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.”
The indictment also charges Chauvin and former officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane with deprivation of rights under color of law for allegedly failing to give Floyd medical aid, the indictment states. Thao and Kueng are also accused of failing to intervene in Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, according to the federal indictment.
In addition, the second indictment relates to a similar incident in September 2017 in which Chauvin knelt on a 14-year-old in Minneapolis. The indictment stated that Chauvin held the teenager by the throat, struck him in the head with a flashlight and held his knee on the neck and upper back of the teenager even after the teen was lying prone, handcuffed and unresisting.
Thao, Kueng and Lane pleaded not guilty to the federal charges in September.
They have also pleaded not guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. That trial is currently set for March 2022.
CNN’s Evan Perez and Adrienne Broaddus contributed to this report.
Derek Chauvin jurors speak out for first time about George Floyd’s murder
It was their first and only interview since finding Derek Chauvin guilty in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The gruesome video of Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as the Black man cried out that he couldn’t breathe is seared into their minds, they said. Some have sought counseling and therapy.
“It is definitely in my spirit and it will always be there,” Sherri Belton Hardeman said of the video.
“Watching George Floyd call for his mom just broke my heart. Me being a mom, a Black mom, a Black grandmother. We call out for our mom when we’re hurting, when we’re in pain, and when we’re in need… And unfortunately his mom could not come to his rescue. In fact, no one came to his rescue. It’s heartbreaking.”
‘No room for error at all’
The jurors deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days before reaching a verdict. Chauvin, who plans to appeal his conviction, was sentenced in June to 22 and half years in prison.
The panel heard about three weeks of testimony. Prosecutors urged them to “believe your eyes” and rely on the video of Floyd’s final moments, including cell phone footage taken by a 17-year-old woman. The defense called seven witnesses — but not Chauvin, who invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify.
“The first thing we did was, one, we took off our (face) masks and then we exchanged names,” Nicole Deters said.
“Some of us felt a little bit eager because we had been holding all this in for three and a half weeks,” Brandon Mitchell added.
Then came the first of many votes they would take, starting with the manslaughter count. The votes were anonymous, scribbled on pieces of paper.
When all agreed on guilty of manslaughter, some panel members began to play devil’s advocate and suggested they discuss the defense arguments. Those arguments were enumerated on a whiteboard.
“I absolutely wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page,” Belton Hardeman said. “I wanted to make sure that we were doing due diligence and that we actually understood what our task was. There was no room for error at all.”
There were about four votes on the second count before agreement was reached on guilty. They watched the video and went through reams of notes and testimony to answer questions such as: How many times was Floyd’s pulse checked? What did the officers say to one another?
Jodi Doud posed another question: “Wait a minute. Does the intended act of harm have to be the death of George Floyd, or can it be him not providing the life support?”
“All of a sudden light bulbs just went on for those people I think that were undecided or on the not guilty side,” Deters said.
“This is not what he did but more or less what he didn’t do,” Doud added, referring to Chauvin. “He did not provide life saving measures for George Floyd when he knew that the guy was in pain or needed medical attention.”
Deters was a holdout — either for not guilty or undecided — until Doud spoke of intent.
“I was just kind of, like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re totally right,'” Deters said. “There is intent … to not provide lifesaving measures when he knew three times there was no pulse.”
‘Race wasn’t even ever mentioned’
In the jury room, Belton Hardeman said, she recalled testimony about a Minneapolis police motto: “In our custody, in our care,” or words to that effect.
“George Floyd was in their custody,” she said. “He was never in their care. And that for me … it just hit hard. I don’t feel like they ever cared for him.”
The jurors said they probably would have reached the same decision had Chauvin taken the stand in his defense.
“The evidence was the evidence,” Mitchell said.
Belton Hardeman added, “I’m still trying to understand nine minutes and 29 seconds. Why? And I don’t think that Derek Chauvin could explain that to me ever.”
Still, the jurors said they would have liked to hear the ex-cop explain his actions.
“For us, I mean, it’s a traumatic experience, ” Mitchell said. “It kind of would have added some closure for us just to hear what were you thinking. Like, how did it get to this?”
Though Floyd’s death at the hands of the White former officer led to widespread protests against law enforcement brutality and racism under the banner Black Lives Matter, the diverse panel said race did not enter their deliberations.
“We got here because of systemic racism within the system, right, because of what’s been going on. That’s how we got to a courtroom in the first place,” Deters said. “But when it came down to all three verdicts, it was based on the evidence and the facts one hundred percent.”
Belton Hardeman added, “Race wasn’t even ever mentioned in the three and a half weeks that we were in that courtroom, and it was never mentioned during deliberations, I don’t believe.”
‘The camera doesn’t lie’
Bystander videos, surveillance video from across the street and video from outside the store where Floyd was arrested on May 25, 2020, were crucial. They captured the more than nine minutes that Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.
“The camera doesn’t lie,” said Belton Hardeman. “And it was in slow motion at times while you were sitting there in court… So it was hard. It played a huge role though. It truly did.”
The footage that first went viral right after Floyd’s death was shot by a young woman named Darnella Frazier, who came upon the scene while going to the Cup Foods store with her cousin. The police encounter started with Floyd buying a pack of cigarettes with a $20 a store cashier believed was fake.
“Without those bystander videos something would’ve happened but it wouldn’t have been at this level, I don’t believe,” said Deters, referring to Chauvin’s eventual conviction.
Lisa Christensen added, “Without Miss Frazier’s video, I don’t think we’d be sitting here today, to be honest with you.”
‘Don’t want to see that video ever again’
Watching the video over and over took an emotional toll.
“Sometimes I went home and just went in my room, shut the door and just went to bed for the rest of the day. It was exhausting,” Christensen said.
“To see somebody go through what Mr. Floyd went through when it could have been prevented. I just still can’t wrap my mind around how a $20 counterfeit bill ended up in George Floyd’s death.”
Doud wanted to shut her eyes the first time she watched the video in its entirety.
“It bothered me so much,” she said. “How could somebody do that to someone else? And it was a slow death. It wasn’t just a gunshot and they’re dead.”
Doud became withdrawn from family members.
“It still, to this day, is having effects on me,” she said.
Deters also saw the full video for the first time in court.
“In the back of my head I’m going, ‘Oh my God, oh my God. Just breathe. Just breathe,” she recalled.
“And then I think to myself, ‘George Floyd couldn’t breathe.’ I’m telling myself to breathe so I don’t pass out having to watch this. But I’m watching a man who couldn’t breathe.”
Mitchell wanted to close his eyes.
“I had to force myself to continue looking at it. You want to turn away. You want to look at a wall. You want look anywhere else really,” he said.
“But even when you look away you still hear it — him crying and moaning. And it’s just like an ongoing nightmare. It’s just like you keep on seeing the video. I’m just tired of seeing it. I just don’t want to see that video ever again.”
Belton Hardeman recalled the moment in the video when prosecutors said Floyd was dead.
“I had a big gasp,” she said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before. I don’t think any of us have. It was very, very traumatic. And it just hurt — just hurt my whole soul, my whole body. And I felt pain for his family.”
About a week after the trial, Christensen said, she visited the street outside the Cup Foods store where Floyd took his last breaths.
“I did pay my respects. For me that was a closure, or at least I thought it was going to be a closure,” she said. “We saw everything in court and on videos, but actually being there and seeing it felt … real to me. It helped me kind of close the door a bit. But it’ll be with me forever.”
Derek Chauvin to appeal against George Floyd convictions | George Floyd
The former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filed an intent to appeal with the Minnesota state appellate court over his murder conviction for the death of George Floyd.
A jury found Chauvin, who is white, guilty in April of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a black man. The verdict was seen widely as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of force by the police against black Americans.
The video of Chauvin kneeling on the neck of the handcuffed Floyd for more than eight minutes during the arrest caused outrage around the world and the largest protest movement seen in the US in decades.
Chauvin was jailed in June for 22-and-a-half years.
In documents filed on Thursday and seen by Reuters, Chauvin raised 14 issues about his prosecution, including the court’s denial of a request for a change of venue, that he believed supported his request for an appeal.
The Minnesota district court could not immediately be reached for comment.
Chauvin said that in his opinion the judge abused his discretion when he denied requests to sequester the jury throughout the trial, denied him a new trial due to what he described as juror misconduct and did not allow him to strike what he said was clearly biased jurors from serving on the jury.
Chauvin also listed issues with the trial itself, including the addition of the third-degree murder charge and the court’s failure to make an official record of numerous sidebars throughout the trial.
Separately, Chauvin filed a motion to put the appeals process on hold until Minnesota’s supreme court reviews an earlier decision to deny him a public defender to represent him in his appeal.
In an affidavit, Chauvin said he had no attorney in the appeals process.
He said he had no income besides nominal prison wages, adding that his case was paid for by the Minneapolis Peace and Police Officers Association but it stopped paying for his legal representation after his conviction and sentencing.
Minneapolis Police chief who fired Derek Chauvin takes the stand in his trial
With that groundwork established, the prosecution is expected to now focus on proving Chauvin’s actions that day should be considered murder and manslaughter. That will require analysis from medical experts who will explain Floyd’s cause of death as well as testimony from police experts who will say that Chauvin used excessive and unnecessary force.
In opening statements last week, prosecuting attorney Jerry Blackwell said to expect testimony from Arradondo, the Hennepin County medical examiner and a number of forensic pathologists.
Some of that use of force analysis has already entered the trial. On Thursday, Chauvin’s direct supervisor said his use of force should have ended earlier.
“When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended the restraint,” Sgt. David Pleoger said. “It would be reasonable to put a knee on someone’s neck until they were not resisting anymore, but it should stop when they are no longer combative.”
And on Friday, the Minneapolis Police Department’s top homicide detective testified that kneeling on Floyd’s neck after he had been handcuffed was “totally unnecessary,” saying that “if your knee is on someone’s neck — that could kill them.”
Chauvin, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, third-degree murder and third-degree manslaughter.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson has argued that Floyd died of a drug overdose and other preexisting health issues, and that Chauvin’s actions were within his police training. Nelson has not indicated whether Chauvin will testify in his own defense.
Testimony in the trial began last Monday and is expected to last about a month.
Doctor says Floyd likely died of asphyxia
The doctor who treated Floyd at the Hennepin County Medical Center last May testified Monday that he believed Floyd most likely died of asphyxia.
Dr. Bradford Langenfeld, an emergency medicine physician, said he treated Floyd for about 30 minutes on May 25, 2020, as hospital staff unsuccessfully tried to restart his heart. Langenfeld went through a checklist of possible causes of Floyd’s cardiac arrest and said the “more likely possibility” was hypoxia, or lack of oxygen.
“Doctor, is there another name for death by oxygen deficiency?” prosecuting attorney Jerry Blackwell asked.
“Asphyxia is a commonly understood term,” Langenfeld responded.
Earlier Monday, Judge Peter Cahill spoke to jurors outside of the view of cameras about an allegation of juror misconduct. He ruled there was not been any misconduct and the jurors were credible.
Feelings of guilt and horror in first week of trial
Pain, trauma and regret spilled out from the Minneapolis courtroom last week as a series of bystanders and first-responders spoke about watching Floyd’s last breaths.
In opening statements, jurors heard for the first time that Chauvin actually knelt on Floyd for 9 minutes and 29 seconds — not the 8 minutes 46 seconds that had became a symbol and rallying cry of a worldwide protest movement against police brutality.
Blackwell said Chauvin knelt for 4 minutes and 45 seconds as Floyd cried out for help, 53 seconds as he flailed due to seizures, and 3 minutes and 51 seconds as Floyd was non-responsive. He only let up on Floyd’s neck when a paramedic motioned for him to get off.
The bystanders who watched the incident described feelings of horror and guilt on the stand. The teenager who took the widely known bystander video testified that she had lost sleep at night, wondering what she could have done differently.
“It’s been nights I’ve stayed up apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life. But it’s not what I should have done, it’s what he should have done,” Darnella Frazier said, referring to Chauvin.
Frazier was walking with a 9-year-old girl to the Cup Foods convenience store at the time of the arrest.
“I was sad and kind of mad,” the girl testified. “Because it felt like he was stopping his breathing, and it was kind of like hurting him.”
An off-duty firefighter who came upon the scene said she tried to offer help, but the officers rebuffed her.
“I tried calm reasoning, I tried to be assertive, I pled and was desperate,” said Genevieve Hansen. “I was desperate to give help.”
Christopher Martin, the 19-year-old cashier who suspected Floyd had handed him a counterfeit $20 bill before the police were called, echoed the regret of other witnesses.
“If I would have just not taken the bill, this could have been avoided,” he said.
CNN’s Ray Sanchez and Omar Jimenez contributed to this report.
Derek Chauvin trial: Minneapolis police chief expected to testify – live | US news
Critics have blamed the training program for fostering a culture of aggressive policing that stretches back decades.
Retired Minneapolis Deputy Chief Greg Hestness wondered how much of Lane and Kueng’s trainers may have rubbed off on the rookie officers, saying he was struck by how quickly their arrest of Floyd over a fake $20 bill escalated into Lane yelling at Floyd to “show me your [expletive] hands!”
“Where does that come from on Day 4?” he asked.
“A really cynical but deserving question is would Chauvin have knelt on him for that long if he wasn’t training the officers at that time?” said Michael Friedman, a former executive director of the Legal Rights Center, saying it seemed Chauvin was “trying to demonstrate how to control a person.”
Gerald Moore, a retired 30-plus-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, said that because rookie officers must pass regular evaluations before they can go out on their own, it can create unhealthy power dynamics with their training officers.
To some, the larger problem is a tendency of some officers not to question and intervene when a colleague — particularly a senior officer — uses excessive force.
After Floyd’s death, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced a stricter “duty to intervene” policy that says officers who witness another officer “use any prohibited force, or inappropriate or unreasonable force” must attempt to “safely intervene by verbal and physical means.”
For years, groups like Communities United Against Police Brutality have pushed for the department to adopt a peer intervention training program developed by the New Orleans Police Department that is based on the premise that there is a tendency for officers not to intervene when they see a colleague engage in misconduct.
The program, called Ethical Policing Is Courageous, or EPIC, is built on the premise that intervention must be taught through training and role-playing and must be continually reinforced through more training to the point that it infuses the departmental culture.
St. Paul police participate in the training, but Minneapolis has not. The debate over police training has been brewing in Minneapolis in recent years after a series of high-profile on-duty killings of civilians.