The crowd gathered on Tuesday, April 20, in the afternoon, in front of the court of justice in Minneapolis (Minnesota). An imminent verdict was announced an hour earlier in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer accused of killing George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
All eyes are on the cell phone screens which show live Judge Peter Cahill proclaiming the unanimous conclusion to which the twelve jurors reached in just ten hours. And to “Guilty! “, pronounced on each of the three counts, cheers rise outside the courtroom.
The former white police officer is well convicted of manslaughter, second and third degree murder of George Floyd, a 46 year old African American. Jurors ruled that he used excessive force: for nearly ten minutes, the officer had crushed the neck of the victim with his knee, suspected of having used a forged 20 dollar bill.
Inside the courtroom, Derek Chauvin watches the jurors withdraw, unmoved as he has been throughout the hearings for the past two weeks. Then he gets up, and is handcuffed. He goes into custody immediately. His sentence will be specified by the judge in two months – we already know that the prosecutor will ask to withhold “Aggravating conditions”, which could increase the penalty.
A quick verdict
In the park in front of the court, in the middle of the signs “Guilty” held out at arm’s length and flags “Black Lives Matter” (“black lives matter”), we kiss, we hug, we cry above all – of relief. The tension, which had accumulated in downtown Minneapolis, barricaded for nearly a year, will be able to relax.
One would have thought that the trial of Derek Chauvin would merge with that of police methods, or the systemic racism that is eating away at the institution – but the prosecution and the defense are well confined to the trial of a man.
This does not prevent the verdict from sending a strong signal, far exceeding the condemned. It suggests repercussions for similar cases to come. America has a record of African Americans killed during arrests or often very violent police checks. A few kilometers away, Daunte Wright’s family are still watching over the body of the 20-year-old African-American, killed on April 11 by a policewoman during a police check in the outskirts of the city.
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