Chauvin Verdict: Live Updates as Officer is Found Guilty of Murder - The New York Times
April 20, 2021, 6:41 p.m. ET
Every major broadcast and cable news network — and even ESPN — broke into regular programming on Tuesday for live coverage of the verdict, ensuring that millions of Americans watched in unison as a Minnesota jury found the former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all charges in the death of George Floyd.
“Justice has been served,” the CNN anchor Don Lemon declared on-air shortly after the verdict, speaking alongside footage of people celebrating — and some crying in relief — outside the Minneapolis courthouse.
Mr. Lemon continued: “I’m sure people who are watching all over this country, watching all over the world, are on their devices getting messages from people, as I am, saying: ‘Thank you, Jesus, thank God. Finally, finally — justice on all counts.’”
That sense of relief was echoed by analysts on several networks, including NBC News, where the political analyst Eugene Robinson told viewers that he had “exhaled for the first time in more than an hour” after learning of the verdict.
“One of my first thoughts was, you know, it shouldn’t have been this hard, right?” Mr. Robinson said. “We haven’t reached our destination on the racial reckoning that we need to have in this country. But I think this will be seen as a step forward, as opposed to what it potentially could have been seen as, which would have been a giant step back.”
On Fox News, the anchor Jeanine Pirro, a former New York State judge, said immediately after the jury found Mr. Chauvin guilty: “Make no mistake, the facts are solid on this verdict. This verdict will be upheld on appeal.” She took pains to frame the outcome of the trial as a sign “that the American justice system works.”
Fox News covered the news on its usual 5 p.m. talk show, “The Five,” where the co-host Juan Williams called the day “very emotional.”
“It would have been so upsetting, it would have been a kick in the stomach,” he told viewers, “if in this most extreme situation, where everybody can see what happened, if the jury had somehow said, ‘Let’s split the verdict.’”
His co-host Greg Gutfeld offered a more disjointed take, claiming it was a “myth” that the trial had divided the nation and saying he was satisfied with the verdict because it might prevent what he characterized as violent protests.
“I’m glad that he was found guilty on all charges even if he might not be guilty of all charges,” Mr. Gutfeld said.
He was quickly interrupted by Ms. Pirro, who had been muttering in disapproving tones as Mr. Gutfeld was speaking. Ms. Pirro scolded Mr. Gutfeld for his views, saying the verdict was a result of clear facts presented by prosecutors. “That courtroom is a place where the evidence is brought in and it is pristine in the way it’s handled,” she said.
April 20, 2021, 6:41 p.m. ET
Derek Chauvin’s murder conviction on Tuesday in the killing of George Floyd brought a flood of emotion from the streets of Minneapolis to the halls of Congress, tempered with exhortations not to view the verdict as a victory against systemic racism.
The mood seemed to be summed up in a statement from former President Barack Obama: “Today, a jury did the right thing. But true justice requires much more.”
Derrick Johnson, the president of the N.A.A.C.P., spoke of Mr. Floyd’s young daughter, Gianna, and called for an end to qualified immunity, which shields police officers from lawsuits in which they are accused of violating people’s constitutional rights.
“While justice has landed Derek Chauvin behind bars for murdering George Floyd, no amount of justice will bring back Gianna’s father,” Mr. Johnson said. “The same way a reasonable police officer would never suffocate an unarmed man to death, a reasonable justice system would recognize its roots in white supremacy and end qualified immunity. Police are here to protect, not lynch.”
Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat who is the first Black person to represent Georgia in the Senate, told reporters on Capitol Hill, “Hopefully this is the beginning of a turning point in our country, where — ” he paused for several seconds before continuing — “people who have seen this trauma over and over again will know that we have equal protection under the law.”
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus renewed their push, begun in the wake of Mr. Floyd’s death last May, for expansive federal changes to policing. Their bill, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, would make it easier to prosecute officers for wrongdoing, add new restrictions on the use of deadly force and effectively ban chokeholds. It passed the House but has languished in the Senate.
“Today I am relieved, today I exhale, but today just marks the beginning of a new phase of a long struggle to bring justice in America,” said Representative Karen Bass, Democrat of California, who is the bill’s primary author.
Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina and the author of a narrower proposal that Republicans made last year and Democrats blocked, has been quietly negotiating with Ms. Bass and other Democrats for weeks. He said on Tuesday that he was “cautiously optimistic we’ll find a path forward.”
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said that Americans “should not mistake a guilty verdict in this case as evidence that the persistent problem of police misconduct has been solved, or that the divide between law enforcement and so many of the communities they serve has been bridged,” and he said that the Senate would continue to work toward that end.
But even amid the emphasis on the verdict’s limits, Bernice King, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., invoked her father’s famous statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“Today it bent toward justice,” she wrote on Twitter, “thanks to the millions of people under the banner of #BlackLivesMatter standing up, speaking up and not letting up for humanity.”
April 20, 2021, 6:38 p.m. ET
Darnella Frazier, who was 17 years old when she filmed video of George Floyd’s arrest, testified during the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in Mr. Floyd’s death.Still image via Court TV
Months before the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who was convicted of killing George Floyd, millions of people around the world watched footage of Mr. Floyd’s death that had been recorded by a teenage witness.
Darnella Frazier was 17 when she recorded the cellphone video and uploaded it to Facebook in May, igniting international protests over racism and police abuse.
Ms. Frazier, now 18, was among the first witnesses called to testify by the prosecution. She said in court that she felt regret for not physically engaging the four officers at the scene, but that they were the ones ultimately at fault.
“It’s been nights I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life,” Ms. Frazier said. She added, seemingly referring to Mr. Chauvin, “But it’s like, it’s not what I should have done, it’s what he should have done.”
Ms. Frazier has largely stayed out of the spotlight since Mr. Floyd’s death, but she said his death has haunted her and that she has anxiety. Her voice was emotional on the stand and she cried several times during her testimony, which was off-camera.
“When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad, I look at my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles, because they’re all Black,” Ms. Frazier said. “I have a Black father. I have a Black brother. I have Black friends.
She added: “I look at how that could have been one of them.”
On the day of Mr. Floyd’s death, Ms. Frazier said, she had been walking to the Cup Foods convenience store with her 9-year-old cousin to get some snacks when they came upon the arrest.
“I see a man on the ground, and I see a cop kneeling down on him,” Ms. Frazier said. She described seeing Mr. Floyd “terrified, scared, begging for his life.”
Ms. Frazier said that as a crowd of bystanders yelled more loudly at the officers, Mr. Chauvin reached for his mace. “I felt in danger when he did that,” she said.
She made one of her first public comments last month, as the jury was being selected, when she wrote on Facebook and Instagram that Mr. Chauvin “deserves to go down” and wondered openly “what else got covered up if it was no evidence to see what really happened.”
April 20, 2021, 6:35 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Philonise Floyd, one of George Floyd’s younger brothers who testified during the trial, is speaking now at a family news conference. He says he feels relieved and hopes that maybe now he can get some sleep. "I'm not just fighting for George anymore," he says. "I'm fighting for everyone around the world."
April 20, 2021, 6:25 p.m. ET
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris watched at the White House on Tuesday as the verdict was read in the trial of Derek Chauvin.Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday watched at the White House as the verdict was read in the trial of Derek Chauvin, who was convicted on two charges of murder and one charge of manslaughter. Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris will give remarks later in the evening.
The guilty verdict came hours after Mr. Biden took the unusual step of weighing in on the trial’s outcome before the jury had come back with a decision. He told reporters earlier Tuesday that he had been “praying” for the “right verdict” in the trial but pointed out that he had only decided to comment because the jury had already been sequestered.
Mr. Biden, who watched the verdict from the television in his private dining room just off the Oval Office, has made several calls since the news broke: One was to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and the other was to Philonese Floyd, George Floyd’s brother. Mr. Biden had last spoken to Philonese on Monday night.
“They’re a good family, and they’ve called for peace and tranquillity no matter what that verdict is,” Mr. Biden told reporters earlier Tuesday. “I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict. Which is — I think it’s overwhelming, in my view.”
April 20, 2021, 6:22 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Even as people outside the courthouse in Minneapolis are emphasizing that they must continue fighting for justice long after today, they are also taking one day to celebrate. They are blasting music in the street, cooking food on a grill and waving flags.
April 20, 2021, 6:01 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
After taking a call from President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, George Floyd's family walks into a Hilton ballroom with their attorney, Ben Crump. Crump repeats chants of "Say his name!" The family responds by yelling: "George Floyd!"
April 20, 2021, 6:11 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
The Rev. Al Sharpton, joining the Floyd family, says the "war and fight" are not over, but "today we can wipe our tears away." In a prayer, he thanks the police officers who testified against Derek Chauvin, a rare occurrence for law enforcement. He is followed by Crump, who was able to secure a $27 million settlement for the Floyd family before the trial began. The mood in the ballroom is triumphant.
April 20, 2021, 6:22 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Like many activists and protesters, Crump is arguing that the struggle isn’t over because Chauvin was convicted. He and Sharpton dove into the list of Black men and women killed by police. He is also giving a history lesson, urging people to live up to ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
April 20, 2021, 6:00 p.m. ET
Speaking after the verdict in a news conference with Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, several members of the prosecution team that tried Derek Chauvin spoke directly of George Floyd. “He was somebody,” said Jerry Blackwell, the lawyer who delivered the prosecution’s final words to the jury on Monday. “His life mattered.”
April 20, 2021, 5:56 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
Thinking back, I cannot recall (as Emily has already mentioned), any verdict awaited with such collective bated breath since the O.J. Simpson trial. Interestingly, the Simpson jury returned its verdict — not guilty — in even less time than the Derek Chauvin jury: not much more than four hours.
April 20, 2021, 5:52 p.m. ET
The former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, far right, before he was convicted of murder on Tuesday.Still image, via Court TV
Judge Peter A. Cahill revoked Derek Chauvin’s bail on Tuesday after he was convicted of murdering George Floyd.
Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who has been free on bail since the fall, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and remanded into the custody of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.
Judge Cahill said he expected to begin a sentencing hearing in about eight weeks. Mr. Chauvin was convicted on all three counts he faced at trial — second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Because Mr. Chauvin has no criminal history, the sentencing guidelines for each of the murder charges is 12.5 years. But the maximum sentences for each charge differ: Second-degree murder can result in a term as long as 40 years, while the maximum for third-degree murder is 25 years.
April 20, 2021, 5:51 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
George Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, who testified in the trial, emphasized that the push for justice should not end with this verdict. “I know that he gave his life so that other people’s cases can get reopened,” Ms. Ross said outside of the building in Minneapolis where Derek Chauvin was convicted.
April 20, 2021, 5:50 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
The jury could have convicted Chauvin or any combination of manslaughter, third-degree murder or second-degree murder, but chose "all of the above." When that happens, it raises questions about whether the theory of the conviction is internally coherent. In this case, could Chauvin be guilty of 1) causing the death of a human being, without intent, while committing an assault (second-degree murder) AND 2) unintentionally causing a death by committing an act that is eminently dangerous to other persons while exhibiting a depraved mind, with reckless disregard for human life (third-degree murder) AND 3) creating an unreasonable risk, by consciously taking the chance of causing death or great bodily harm to someone else (manslaughter)? I’d say the answer is probably yes, but I confess I’m still absorbing all the legal jargon.
April 20, 2021, 5:48 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
It needs to be said that the anxious anticipation that preceded today’s verdict was itself an indication of just how difficult it is in general to convict police officers. The death of George Floyd was captured — excruciatingly — on video. And yet up until the moment the verdict was read, there was a widespread feeling that it could have gone either way.
April 20, 2021, 5:46 p.m. ET
Reporting from New York
Though his eyes darted from side to side, Derek Chauvin showed little emotion as the judge read the jury's verdict, mirroring his almost stone-faced reaction to the trial in general. After the judge denied bail, Mr. Chauvin, who has been free on bail since October, nodded his head, stood up and placed his hands behind his back to be handcuffed — as though he had rehearsed it. Judge Peter Cahill said sentencing would take place in eight weeks.
April 20, 2021, 5:40 p.m. ET
Women embraced outside the Hennepin County Government Center after the guilty verdicts were announced.Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
The jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin found him guilty on all three charges he faced: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
How much prison time Mr. Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd, will have to serve will not be decided until several weeks from now, after a pre-sentencing report about Mr. Chauvin’s background is produced. Judge Peter A. Cahill will also have to determine whether there were special circumstances of the crime that would justify a lengthier sentence than the prison terms laid out by Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines.
Because Mr. Chauvin has no criminal history, the sentencing guidelines for each of the murder charges is 12.5 years. But the maximum sentences for each charge differ: Second-degree murder could mean as long as 40 years in prison, while the maximum for third-degree murder is 25 years.
Mr. Chauvin is also charged with second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, but under the guidelines he would most likely be sentenced to four years.
Before Mr. Chauvin was convicted, the state asked for a lengthier sentence should he be convicted of any of the charges — what is known as an “upward sentencing departure” — citing aggravating factors including, the state has said in court filings, that the killing of Mr. Floyd happened in the presence of children, that Mr. Floyd was treated with “particular cruelty” by Mr. Chauvin, and that Mr. Chauvin, as a police officer, “abused his position of authority.”
Mr. Chauvin had the option of having the jury rule on the aggravating factors or putting it in the hands of Judge Cahill. At the end of closing arguments on Monday, Mr. Chauvin waived his right to have the jury decide, putting the decision on sentencing solely in the hands of Judge Cahill.
April 20, 2021, 5:39 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
The next issue in this case is Derek Chauvin’s sentence. After George Floyd died last May, former Attorney General William Barr refused to approve a plea bargain that reportedly would have sent Chauvin to prison for at least 10 years. (Barr said he was worried in part that protesters would see the deal as too lenient, an official said then.) Did Barr make a good decision no matter what, given the clarity the trial provided? Or will his call seem questionable if Chauvin’s sentence is not significantly more than 10 years? He faces as many as 40.
April 20, 2021, 5:38 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
While it is impossible to know at this early stage what facts or arguments proved decisive to the jury, the closing statement on Monday by prosecutor Steve Schleicher was a prime example of simplicity and clarity. By my lights, Schleicher hit on two important themes that may have resonated with jurors.
April 20, 2021, 5:39 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
First, he described the Derek Chauvin case, counter-intuitively, as a pro-police, not an anti-police, prosecution. What he meant was that holding this one officer accountable was in fact good for officers everywhere. Second, Schleicher asked the jurors to trust their own instincts and believe what they saw on video had actually happened. He encouraged them to use simple common sense.
April 20, 2021, 5:29 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
The Hennepin County district attorney’s office originally had the Derek Chauvin case before the state attorney general’s office took over. The facts laid out in the D.A.’s complaint were much more favorable to Chauvin than the attorney general’s case, which went to trial. The shift in prosecutors' offices might have made a difference in securing a conviction.
April 20, 2021, 5:36 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
Alan, thank you for noting the difference between the D.A.‘s original complaint and the state A.G.’s. It shows how important prosecutors are. They have so much discretion, always. When Keith Ellison, the Minnesota A.G., took over the case, it was seen as an unusual maneuver. But a state A.G. has more distance from local police than a D.A.
April 20, 2021, 5:27 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
It is literally raining money at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, the memorial to the spot where Floyd was killed. Someone has just "made it rain," and dollar bills are everywhere.
April 20, 2021, 5:26 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Just south of the courthouse, at the hotel where George Floyd’s family and their lawyer, Ben Crump, are set to speak shortly, church bells can be heard tolling.
April 20, 2021, 5:30 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
About two dozen reporters are waiting for the Floyd family at the Hilton ballroom. Sixteen seats have been set out for speakers. Expect a large crowd, including the Rev Al. Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other civil rights leaders.
April 20, 2021, 5:22 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Tears dripped onto Janay Henry’s black mask shortly after the verdict as she stood steps away from the spot where George Floyd was killed. “I’m overjoyed and just a little overwhelmed," she said. "There was so much doubt in my mind we wouldn’t make it. I’m super grateful we can rest tonight.” Henry wore a burgundy T-shirt that read, “I’m Black mixed with Black.”
April 20, 2021, 5:21 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
Conventional wisdom has long held that short deliberations favor the prosecution. It was right in the case of Derek Chauvin. The jury deliberated for not much more than 10 hours altogether, a remarkably brief period given that Mr. Chauvin was facing three charges, each of which was legally complex. Before the jurors were sequestered and began their discussion, Judge Peter Cahill gave them extended instructions, and yet they asked no questions of him at all.
April 20, 2021, 5:26 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
I’m not surprised that the jury worked quickly. The video of George Floyd’s killing said so much. The police testimony made it clear that Chauvin’s actions were not those of a “reasonable officer,” the legal standard that lets many cops off the hook for use of force. Once the prosecution made a strong showing on the cause of death, based on the medical evidence, I’m not sure what hope the defense really had.
April 20, 2021, 5:17 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
Perhaps in one sense this guilty verdict will be remembered as the inverse of another landmark verdict — in O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial. When O.J. was found not guilty in 1995, public response split along racial lines. The reaction to today’s decision, by contrast, could be fairly unified — a largely shared feeling of relief that justice has been done. After all, the protests after the killing of George Floyd last summer had broad public support.
April 20, 2021, 5:17 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
For all of the obvious emotional import of today’s verdict in the case of Derek Chauvin — guilty on all charges — jury decisions are imperfect tools for understanding larger social movements.Trials by definition decide the guilt or innocence of individual defendants. It is certainly tempting to read a deeper and broader significance into them, but it is also risky to do so.
April 20, 2021, 5:20 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
The conviction last year, for instance, of the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, while widely read as a test of the strength of the #MeToo movement, hardly signaled the end of men’s abuse of women. In a similar vein, the conviction of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in 2019 had virtually no on-the-ground effect on the Mexican drug trade.
April 20, 2021, 5:21 p.m. ET
Reporting on criminal justice
And when the Islamic terrorists who blew up two U.S. embassies in Africa were convicted in May 2001, it was broadly understood to have struck decisive a blow against Al Qaeda. Four months later, the terror group successfully launched the Sept. 11 attacks.
April 20, 2021, 5:22 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
Alan, agreed. It’s tempting to draw grand conclusions about the justice system when the most obviously condemnable acts are condemned. But trials should not be read beyond the facts of a case and its moment in time.
April 20, 2021, 5:11 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
At George Floyd Square, the memorial to where Floyd was killed, a woman nearly collapses in tears. When she straightens, she manages to croak out, “We matter. We matter.”
April 20, 2021, 5:12 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
The crowd starts chanting one down, three to go — a reference to the three other officers who will face charges in George Floyd’s death in August.
April 20, 2021, 5:10 p.m. ET
Reporting from Chicago
Derek Chauvin was placed in handcuffs in the courtroom and led away after the verdict was read.
April 20, 2021, 5:10 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Outside the building in Minneapolis where the verdict was read, there was a shout — “Guilty!” — and then an eruption of cheers. When all the counts came back guilty, the cheer changed: “All three counts!”
April 20, 2021, 5:07 p.m. ET
After deliberating for about 10 hours over two days, the jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of George Floyd.Still image, via Court TV
Derek Chauvin was found guilty of two counts of murder on Tuesday in the death of George Floyd, whose final breaths last May under the knee of Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, were captured on video, setting off months of protests against the police abuse of Black people.
After deliberating for about 10 hours over two days following an emotional trial that lasted three weeks, the jury found Mr. Chauvin, who is white, guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, on a street corner last year on Memorial Day.
Mr. Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison when he is sentenced in the coming weeks but is likely to receive far less time. The presumptive sentence for second-degree murder is 12.5 years, according to Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines, although the state has asked for a higher sentence.
The verdict was read in court and broadcast live to the nation on television, as the streets around the heavily fortified courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, ringed by razor wire and guarded by National Guard soldiers, filled with people awaiting the verdict.
For a country whose legal system rarely holds police officers to account for killing on the job, especially when the victims are Black people, the case was a milestone and its outcome a sign, perhaps, that the death of Mr. Floyd has moved the country toward more accountability for police abuses and more equality under the law.
The city has been on edge for weeks as the trial progressed and the city awaited the verdict, with many worrying that a not guilty ruling would bring renewed social unrest and chaos to a city that saw buildings set ablaze and widespread looting last year following the death of Mr. Floyd.
After the verdict was read, Judge Peter A. Cahill ordered that Mr. Chauvin, who has been free on bail since last fall, be immediately taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies. Mr. Chauvin was taken out of the courtroom in handcuffs and will be sentenced in eight weeks following the completion of a pre-sentencing report about his background.
April 20, 2021, 5:07 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
This case proved to be the exception to the rule in a few ways. Most important, an officer’s wrongdoing was so shockingly apparent that a jury convicted him despite the high hurdles to convicting the police for use of force.
April 20, 2021, 5:07 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
And because of Minnesota’s unusual felony-murder statute, the prosecution won a second-degree murder conviction without having to prove that Derek Chauvin intended to kill George Floyd. (The jury merely had to find that Chauvin intended to commit an assault that could cause bodily harm. That counted as the felony in felony murder.)
April 20, 2021, 5:08 p.m. ET
Reporting on legal issues
Also, the case went to trial. In many states, more than 95 percent of convictions are obtained not through trials, but through plea bargains. Trials capture our imagination by providing a detailed narrative and public record. But plea bargains are very much the norm.
April 20, 2021, 5:07 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Cheers erupt at the corner where George Floyd was killed as the verdict is read.
April 20, 2021, 5:07 p.m. ET
Reporting from Chicago
The jury has found Derek Chauvin guilty of manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.
April 20, 2021, 5:07 p.m. ET
Reporting from Chicago
The jury has found Derek Chauvin guilty of third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd.
April 20, 2021, 5:06 p.m. ET
Reporting from Chicago
The jury has found Derek Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd.
April 20, 2021, 5:05 p.m. ET
Reporting from Chicago
Judge Peter Cahill has entered the courtroom, signalling that the verdict will be read momentarily.
April 20, 2021, 4:28 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
When the alert went out from the court about 2:30 p.m. local time that a verdict had been reached and would be read in an hour, residents, activists and journalists descended on the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. For weeks, the space had been eerily quiet, as buildings were boarded up and office workers stayed home. But suddenly on Tuesday afternoon there were traffic jams and the feel of an anxious street festival, with everyone waiting to see what would happen.
April 20, 2021, 4:27 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Outside of the building where the jury’s verdict is about to be read, Courteney Ross, who was George Floyd’s girlfriend and who testified in the trial, says she is confident that Derek Chauvin will be convicted of second-degree murder, the most severe charge he is facing. “I am convinced that there is going to be a guilty verdict coming,” Ms. Ross tells reporters.
April 20, 2021, 4:14 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Employees at Cup Foods, the store outside of which George Floyd died, were rushing to close up their business before the verdict was read this afternoon. “Safety’s more important,” said Billy Abumayyaleh, one of the owners, as he stared at a television playing the news of preparations for the verdict. “As long as we get a guilty verdict, that’s all that matters.”
April 20, 2021, 4:17 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
“Just on edge about seeing what it’s going to be,” Raykel Neubert said as she worked on someone’s cellphone at Cup Foods. Neubert witnessed Mr. Floyd being pinned in the street by Derek Chauvin last year and has been shaken ever since.
April 20, 2021, 4:12 p.m. ET
Reporting from Chicago
The jury's verdict is expected to be read between 3:30 and 4 p.m. local time.
April 20, 2021, 4:10 p.m. ET
Reporting from Minneapolis
Derek Chauvin is now at the courthouse with his lawyer, per a pool reporter, waiting for the jury's verdict to be read.
April 20, 2021, 3:31 p.m. ET
The former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter charges in the death of George Floyd, a Black man whose killing sparked nationwide protests.Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, and its decision will be read between 3:30 and 4 p.m. local time.
Mr. Chauvin faces charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The presumptive sentence for the most serious of the charges, second-degree unintentional murder, is 12.5 years, according to Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines. But the prosecution has asked for a lengthier sentence, arguing that there were children present at the scene, that Mr. Chauvin treated Mr. Floyd with “particular cruelty,” and that Mr. Chauvin “abused his position of authority.”
The verdict comes the day after lawyers gave their closing arguments, the culmination of three weeks of witness testimonies that were livestreamed to a large audience. The 12-person jury heard from 45 witnesses in total, 38 from the prosecution and seven from Mr. Chauvin’s defense.
Among them was a young woman who used her cellphone to videotape the arrest of Mr. Floyd, which infuriated many Americans who saw his death as an emblem of racial injustice. A wave of protests — possibly the largest in American history — washed over the country in the weeks and months that followed.
Other witnesses included use-of-force experts, the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, paramedics who responded to the scene and medical experts, including a pulmonologist and a cardiologist.
During closing arguments, prosecutors asked jurors to “believe your eyes” and the feelings they had while watching the wrenching videos of Mr. Floyd’s final moments under the knee of Mr. Chauvin. The defense argued that Mr. Chauvin was acting as any reasonable police officer would, and said the state had ignored other possible contributing factors to Mr. Floyd’s death, including heart problems and drug use.
In Minneapolis, tensions are high as the public awaits the jury’s verdict. More than 3,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen have been deployed to the city, and on Monday law enforcement agencies and community organizations asked for peace.
April 20, 2021, 2:59 p.m. ET
Members of the Minnesota State Patrol surrounding a Target store during protests over the death of George Floyd last May. Craig Lassig/EPA, via Shutterstock
As jurors in the Derek Chauvin trial finished their first hours of deliberation on Monday night, Tracy Wiggins was putting his daughter to bed at their home in south Minneapolis and worrying about what would happen next in the case that has catalyzed American concerns over race and policing.
“As a Black man in America, none of this surprises me,” said Mr. Wiggins, 52, who works in project management for Target, one of the city’s biggest companies. “I’ve been told all my life this is how the world is. The newness is for other people.”
Mr. Wiggins, who grew up in Virginia Beach, Va., and served six years in the Marine Corps, said he and his wife have followed the trial in fits and starts during their busy remote workdays. He was surprised to see so many police officers, including Chief Medaria Arradondo, testify that Mr. Chauvin’s actions violated Minneapolis Police Department policy.
“You usually don’t see police department officials come out and speak against a current or former police officer,” Mr. Wiggins said. “That was striking early on.”
Minneapolis has been on edge for weeks in anticipation of a verdict. The city has stepped up security, erected fences and barricades and called in more than 3,000 National Guard troops.
Mr. Wiggins said the damage to property, including at stores owned by his employer, during the protests following Mr. Floyd’s death last summer was perhaps a necessary evil, given the harm that has come to Black people at the hands of law enforcement for generations.
“As unfortunate as it is, if that’s what it takes to institute change, then so be it,” he said. “To save lives in the long term, I can’t say that I’m opposed to it.”
Mr. Wiggins said he hoped that a greater understanding of the discrimination that Black people face could lead to meaningful change. “I’m a little concerned that there will be a backlash, like there was with affirmative action in the ’80s,” he said, “but I’m cautiously optimistic.”
April 20, 2021, 1:40 p.m. ET
A national Guard member and Minneapolis police officers standing guard outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis on Tuesday.Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
Cities across the country are preparing for protests as the jury in the murder trial of the former police officer Derek Chauvin entered its second day of deliberations on Tuesday. With the memory of last summer’s protests after George Floyd’s death still fresh, some states have ordered National Guard troops to be on standby in anticipation of large protests if there is an acquittal.
Police chiefs are urging protesters to be peaceful, and businesses in many cities, from Indianapolis to Los Angeles to New York, are boarding up windows. The courthouse where the trial is being held is surrounded by razor-wire, fencing, concrete barriers and dozens of National Guard troops.
It will be up to each governor to decide whether troops or law enforcement will be necessary to help with possible protests. So far, Illinois, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., have done so.
Here’s how cities are preparing:
Minneapolis: On Monday, Gov. Tim Walz declared a “peacetime emergency” and said that state troopers from Nebraska and Ohio would come to Minneapolis to help overwhelmed local and state law enforcement. There are already 3,000 National Guard troops in Minneapolis and 1,000 law enforcement officers, including state troopers. The force is patrolling the downtown and metropolitan areas.
Construction workers boarded up dozens of additional buildings downtown on Tuesday morning. The local police and sheriff’s deputies patrolled the streets in squad cars near the courthouse, focusing on shopping centers. And businesses set up additional concrete barriers and fencing, making it harder to access parking lots and entrances. Some businesses have taken to spray painting or posting signs to alert customers that they are open, even if windows appear covered. On one corner downtown, at least six National Guard Humvees were parked with about a dozen guards.
Chicago:Gov. JB Pritzker ordered state troopers and 125 National Guard troops to help law enforcement in Chicago. The authorities in Chicago were already on edge after the police released a video of an officer shooting Adam Toledo, an unarmed 13-year-old boy, on April 16. The protests so far have been peaceful. But last summer, the city took to raising the bridges in downtown Chicago to prevent protests from reaching major retailers, fearing violence similar to that in Minneapolis.
New York: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hasn’t ordered National Guard troops to New York City. Last summer, the city’s Police Department, which has more than 30,000 officers, handled the protests after Mr. Floyd’s death. The first nights of protests last year ended in sporadic violence and looting in SoHo and Midtown.
April 20, 2021, 1:23 p.m. ET
The George Floyd memorial site in Minneapolis last summer.Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York Times
As jurors in the Derek Chauvin trial consider a verdict, Minnesota’s largest employers are bracing for a reopening of last summer’s wounds.
George Floyd’s killing ignited violence and unrest last summer that forced Target to shutter a number of its stores and limit hours in others. More broadly, it set off a social reckoning across corporate America, as business leaders sought to address racial inequity both within their own walls and the community at large. In Minnesota, more than 80 companies including General Mills, Best Buy and 3M started the Minnesota Business Coalition for Racial Equity aimed at improving outcomes for the state’s Black community.
As the state gears up for the possibility of renewed unrest, a spokesman for Target said the retailer was “closely monitoring the trial and any surrounding activity,” but did not indicate any plans to close stores in advance of a verdict.
The majority of the company’s headquarters work force is already working from home, but for those employees still in its main office and stores downtown, “we’ve communicated to them about the trial, shared that we’re monitoring closely and let them know we’ll reach out if there’s any impact to our business,” the Target spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for General Mills, which sells its Cheerios and other baked goods around the world, said the company remained focused on broader issues facing the company and country.
“As a global company headquartered in Minneapolis, we understand the nation is in a long overdue conversation on systemic racism,” she said. “Further, we know we have a role to play and all of us have a lot of work to do on this count.” The company’s top priority is communicating its “support and allyship” to its employees, she said.
Minnesota’s largest company by revenue, UnitedHealth Group, is “offering training for managers to have conversations with their teams, and seminars focused on empathy and compassion,” a spokesman said. “Our priority during this period is supporting our employees who continue to be affected in different ways by this case.”
At 3M, which makes products across a broad array of industries, the company has increased resources in its employee assistance program, a spokesman said. “We continue to have, and encourage, open discussions with our colleagues to listen, understand, and act, as needed.”
April 20, 2021, 12:54 p.m. ET
President Biden disclosed the details of a phone call he shared with the family of George Floyd, as the family awaits the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former officer accused of killing Mr. Floyd.Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Biden called the family of George Floyd on Monday to express his support and sympathy, telling reporters on Tuesday that the evidence against the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was “overwhelming” and that he was praying for the “right verdict.” Hours later, a jury found Mr. Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
It is highly unusual for a president to weigh in on behalf of a specific outcome in a judicial proceeding. On Monday, Peter A. Cahill, the Minnesota state judge who is presiding in the case, warned politicians to refrain from commenting on the outcome after Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, urged demonstrators to mobilize in anticipation of the verdict.
“I can only imagine the pressure and anxiety they are feeling, so I waited till the jury was sequestered,” Mr. Biden said of his conversation with the Floyd family during brief remarks in the Oval Office.
The murder trial of Derek Chauvin is at the center of a national reckoning on race and policing. But cycles of protests over systemic racism and policing are not new. We watched the trial with the families of Rodney King, Oscar Grant and Stephon Clark to see this moment in history through their eyes.
“They’re a good family, and they’re calling for peace and tranquillity, no matter what that verdict is. I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict.”
The evidence “is overwhelming in my view,” Mr. Biden said, adding that most of the conversation focused on “personal things.”
The president quickly defended his decision to weigh in on an unresolved trial, saying he thought it was appropriate to do so because all the evidence had been presented and the jury would not hear his remarks.
“I wouldn’t say that unless the jury was sequestered now,” he added, following a meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Later, Mr. Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, brushed aside suggestions that the president’s comments undermined an independent judiciary, but she did not clarify what he meant by calling for “the right” verdict.
“I don’t think he would see it as weighing in on the verdict,” she told reporters during her daily briefing. “He was conveying what many people are feeling across the country, which is compassion for the family.”
Ms. Psaki said Mr. Biden, who flew to Houston to console Mr. Floyd’s family before his funeral last June, had been speaking from his “heart” and would have further comment on the trial once the verdict had been rendered.
Mr. Floyd’s family discussed the president’s call during a television appearance earlier in the day.
“He was just calling,” Philonise Floyd, Mr. Floyd’s brother, told NBC’s “Today” show early Tuesday, a day after the Chauvin jury had retired to consider the verdict.
“He knows how it is to lose a family member, and he knows the process of what we’re going through,” he continued. “So he was just letting us know that he was praying for us, hoping that everything will come out to be OK.”
Shortly after video circulated last May showing Mr. Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, Mr. Biden expressed sympathy with the family and called Mr. Floyd’s death an example of an “ingrained systemic cycle of injustice” that plagued the country.
“George Floyd’s life matters,” Mr. Biden said during a livestream with supporters at the time. “It mattered as much as mine. It matters as much as anyone’s in this country. At least it should have.”
April 20, 2021, 12:32 p.m. ET
The defense lawyer Eric J. Nelson and his client, the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, during closing arguments at the Hennepin County Courthouse on Monday.Still image, via Court TV
The jury has begun deliberations in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who has been charged in connection with the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died on May 25 after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground under the knee of Mr. Chauvin, who is white, for more than nine minutes.
Throughout the trial, which began on March 29, the jury heard from 45 witnesses, including bystanders and experts, viewed hours of video of Mr. Floyd’s arrest, and heard arguments from the prosecution and the defense, each presenting a different narrative of what caused Mr. Floyd’s death. Here are some of the key people in the trial.
The Defendant
Derek Chauvin, 45, had been an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department for more than 19 years before George Floyd’s death. During that time, he was the subject of at least 22 complaints and internal investigations.
Mr. Chauvin faces charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of Mr. Floyd.
The Judge
Judge Peter A. Cahill is a 14-year veteran of the bench in Hennepin County. He has previously worked as a public defender, private defense lawyer and prosecutor, rising to become chief deputy under Amy Klobuchar, now a U.S. senator, when she served as the county attorney.
The Jury
The jury — made up of 12 jurors and two alternates — was chosen from a pool of more than 300 people from across Hennepin County. Throughout the trial, they have remained anonymous; their faces were not shown on camera.
The jurors’ identities are secret, but the court has released some demographic information: There are three Black men, one Black woman, two women who identified as multiracial, two white men and four white women. They are from urban and suburban areas, ranging in age from 20s to 60s.
The Prosecution
Jerry W. Blackwell, a corporate attorney, was the first lawyer to speak when the trial opened. Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, brought Mr. Blackwell in only for this case, and Mr. Blackwell is working for free.
Steve Schleicher, an experienced trial and appellate lawyer and former federal prosecutor, spent 13 years in the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, as the deputy criminal chief of the special prosecution section and the St. Paul branch chief, according to a biography on his firm’s website. He gave the prosecution’s closing argument, while Mr. Blackwell handled its rebuttal.
Matthew Frank, an assistant attorney general for Minnesota, took the lead in questioning many of the witnesses, including several who shared emotional and detailed accounts of Mr. Floyd’s arrest on May 25.
Other lawyers on the prosecution team who have not appeared in court include Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general; Neal Katyal, an acting solicitor general during the Obama administration who has argued many cases before the Supreme Court; and Sundeep Iyer and Harrison Gray Kilgore, lawyers with Hogan Lovells who joined the prosecution pro hac vice, meaning the judge has allowed them to work on the case despite not being licensed by the bar in Minnesota.
The Defense
Mr. Chauvin is represented by Eric J. Nelson, a defense lawyer who rotates as counsel for the legal defense fund of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officer’s Association. Mr. Nelson took on Mr. Chauvin’s defense over the summer, after his first lawyer retired. Amy Voss, another lawyer, whom Mr. Nelson identified as his assistant, appeared in court throughout the trial but did not speak.
April 20, 2021, 11:06 a.m. ET
Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York Times
Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York Times
Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
Adrees Latif/Reuters
Demonstrators marched through downtown Minneapolis on Monday as jury deliberations started in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Damik Wright, the brother of Daunte Wright, who was fatally shot by a police officer on April 11, at a protest outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department. Roosevelt High School students participated in a statewide walkout to protest racial injustice. A couple visited “Say Their Names Cemetery,” a memorial to victims of police violence.
April 20, 2021, 10:21 a.m. ET
Security at the Hennepin County Government Center on Monday, the first day of jury deliberations.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
Twelve jurors resumed their deliberations on Tuesday morning in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, marking their second day of discussions over evidence in the closely watched case.
The jurors are being sequestered in a hotel each night until they reach a verdict or determine that it is impossible for them all to agree. They must be unanimous in order to convict or acquit Mr. Chauvin of any of the three charges he is facing: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The jurors’ identities are secret, but the court has released some demographic information: The jurors include four white women, two white men, three Black men, one Black woman, and two multiracial women. They range in age from their 20s to their 60s.
0 Response to "Chauvin Verdict: Live Updates as Officer is Found Guilty of Murder - The New York Times"
Post a Comment