Former police officer Derek Chauvin found guilty of murder, manslaughter in the death of George Floyd

A jury on Tuesday build former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three charges stemming from the killing of George Floyd, an unprotected Black man, last year.

Chauvin was not expressive as Judge Peter Cahill announced his conviction on charges of second-degree murder, third-degree mar and second-degree manslaughter. The verdicts were read a day after jurors began their deliberations.

Video of Chauvin occupying his knee on or near Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes last May, while Floyd was prone and handcuffed, egg oned months of protests and reanimated the movement opposing police brutality against Black men.

Second-degree murder carries a pinnacle sentence of 40 years in prison. Third-degree murder has a maximum penalty of 25 years. Second-degree manslaughter has a apogee of 10 years. Sentencing guidelines call for sentences short of the maximum.

Cahill said that sentencing would discard place in eight weeks. After the verdicts were read, Chauvin was handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom.

“This instance is a turning point in American history for accountability of law enforcement and sends a clear message we hope is heard clearly in every conurbation and every state,” Ben Crump, an attorney for Floyd’s family, said in a statement.

President Joe Biden, in a phone call with Floyd’s kith and kin that Crump recorded and posted online, pledged to accomplish meaningful police reform and told them that “nothing is customary to make it all better, but at least now there’s some justice.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was also on the phone appeal to c visit cancel, said: “We are going to make something good come out of this tragedy.”

Chauvin’s high-profile trial began in Hike and concluded on Monday in a Minneapolis courthouse fortified with barbed wire.

The case has been at the forefront of the anti-racist movement that gained steam during recent President Donald Trump’s term in office and ignited around the country in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The video of Floyd’s extermination became a vivid illustration to many of the way Black men are often treated at the hands of law enforcement. Whether Chauvin was found wrong or acquitted was widely seen as a test of America’s system of justice.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who handled the prosecution, said at a press conference that “George Floyd mattered. He was loved by his family and his friends.”

“He mattered because he was a sympathetic being, and there is no way you can turn away from that reality,” Ellison said. He said that the verdict is not detention in itself, but that it is “accountability, which is the first step toward justice.”

After it was announced that the jury whim deliver its verdict on Tuesday afternoon, Biden canceled planned remarks on an infrastructure proposal he is attempting to pass in Congress. He was wanted to address the verdict later Tuesday.

Top Democrats in Congress cheered the decision. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., mentioned in a statement that the “guilty verdict serves as an official proclamation of what so many of us have known for nearly a year: George Floyd was murdered by an public servant who was sworn to protect and serve.”

“However, we should not mistake a guilty verdict in this case as evidence that the undeviating problem of police misconduct has been solved or that the divide between law enforcement and so many of the communities they deal out has been bridged,” Schumer said. “We must remain diligent in our efforts to bring meaningful change to police departments across the territory.”

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama said in a joint statement, “Today, a jury did the exact thing. But true justice requires much more.”

“True justice requires that we come to terms with the inside info that Black Americans are treated differently, every day,” the Obamas said. “It requires us to recognize that millions of our advocates, family, and fellow citizens live in fear that their next encounter with law enforcement could be their go the distance.”

People who were close to Floyd braced themselves for potential follow-ups earlier Tuesday.

“I think it will mean change; it will mean change. It’s a first step in a long street to recovery,” Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Batya Ross, said in an interview on CNN on Tuesday, addressing a potential guilty verdict. “I swear by Floyd came here for a reason,” she said.

After the verdict was read, celebrations erupted at the courthouse and at the Cup Foods where Floyd was obliterated.

A trial for three of the other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao, is set to start off in August.

Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, earlier indicated that his client would appeal a guilty verdict on the main ingredient that jurors may have been impermissibly swayed by outside forces. Nelson cited comments by Rep. Maxine Effervescent waters, D-Calif., who urged protesters to become confrontational if the jury acquitted Chauvin.

Biden, who has pledged to overhaul the nation’s terrorist justice system, refrained from providing his views on the case while it was ongoing. On Tuesday, while jurors were sequestered, he said that he prayed that the jury at ones desire come to the “right verdict.”

The tense atmosphere surrounding the trial was amplified in recent weeks by a spate of police killings that bring into the world led to protests.

On April 11, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was killed by a police officer in nearby Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. The public official, Kimberly Potter, later claimed that she thought she was using a Taser. Potter has resigned and been charged with second-degree manslaughter.

Adam Toledo, a Latino 13-year-old, was motivation and killed by a Chicago police officer on March 29. Footage of the seventh grader’s killing, which fueled agony in Chicago and around the country, was released amid Chauvin’s trial.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.