Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

In just a little less than ten hours, the jury in the Derek Chauvin murder trial found him guilty on all three counts on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. The judge announced the verdict at 5:10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This verdict was not something that just people in the U.S. were waiting to hear. This case was an international story. In the days following George Floyd’s murder on Memorial Day 2020, people around the world started holding protests and demonstrations, and some cases riots, over how Floyd lost his life.
George Floyd after being accused of passing a fake $20 bill inside a store along a popular shopping strip in Minneapolis, was stopped, handcuffed, briefly questioned, man-handled, and ultimately thrown to the ground. That is where Police Officer Derek Chauvin becomes the primary figure in the story. A seasoned officer on the Minneapolis police force, he rose to the ranks of a training officer of rookies.
This training officer put his foot on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes. Even as George Floyd kept crying out, “I can’t breathe,” “I can’t breathe,” Derek Chauvin gave him no mercy and kept his foot on Floyd’s neck until the man was lifeless, right there on the ground. By the time an ambulance got him to the hospital, George Floyd was declared dead.
To tell the truth about the verdict, I think many people were thinking the worst. People believed that the jury would go easy on Derek Chauvin like we have witnessed so many times in other cases where a Black man or woman was shot and killed by a police officer. It seems that the police officers are always found “not guilty.”
On April 20, 2021, finally, long at last. Oh Glory, finally, justice has been served. It will not bring George Floyd back to his children, or his girlfriend, or the rest of his family and loved ones, but at least Derek Chauvin will not get away with murder. At the time this column is being written, we do not know what Chauvin’s sentence will be, but I think it is safe to say he is going to do some serious prison time as it should be. When you take a life, you have to pay for that sin.
The jury found Chauvin guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Judge Peter Cahill read the verdict at the secured Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, where the trial began last month.
As for Derek Chauvin, he showed hardly any reaction after the verdict was announced. Judge Cahill announced Chauvin’s bail was revoked, and he was led away in handcuffs.
The jury consisted of six white people, four Black people, and two multiracial people. They heard 13 days of sometimes emotional testimony. Judge Cahill sent the jurors to begin deliberations after attorneys on both sides concluded lengthy closing arguments Monday, April 19th. The jury was sequestered during deliberations but was not sequestered during the earlier portion of the trial.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Steve Schleicher urged jurors to “Believe your eyes,” Schleicher said. “Unreasonable force, pinning him to the ground — that’s what killed him. This was a homicide.”
Schleicher said Chauvin showed “indifference” to Floyd’s pleas for help and continued restraining the man even after he was unresponsive, ignoring the bystanders who were urging him to ease up.
“This case is exactly what you thought when you first saw it — when you first saw the video,” he said. “It’s exactly that. It’s exactly what you saw with your eyes. It’s exactly what you knew. It’s exactly what you felt in your gut. It’s what you now know in your heart. This wasn’t policing, this was murder.”
In his closing argument, defense attorney Eric Nelson said the state did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and did not definitely show how Floyd died. Nelson has argued a combination of Floyd’s underlying heart disease, adrenaline, and the fentanyl and methamphetamine he had ingested before the arrest amounted to a fatal combination. Nelson called the case “tragic,” but said it was an example of “officers doing their job in a highly stressful situation.”
In my opinion, the defense attorney had a very weak case. He presented weak arguments, and I think he knew he was representing a losing case.
A note about the class of President Joe Biden: President Biden took time out of his very demanding schedule a couple of days before the verdict in the Chauvin trial to let George Floyd’s family know he was thinking of them and praying for them. Mr. Biden confirmed on Tuesday that he had made the call to Mr. Floyd’s family. “I waited until the jury was sequestered and I called,” he told reporters. “I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict. The evidence is overwhelming in my view.”
The other three officers involved in the George Floyd arrest and subsequent murder on May 31, 2020, are charged with aiding and abetting and are expected to be tried jointly in August 2021.
At the end of the day, racism is still alive and well in America. There are still some people who are police officers, wearing badges, sworn to protect, and who are racist and who will hurt a person of color if they think no one is looking and they can get away with it. Or if they know people are watching and they “think” they can get away with it. Prayerfully the Derek Chauvin verdict will send a message to officers who “think”, even with witnesses, they can do whatever they want to and get away with it- Think again.