On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was placed in a prone position with the knee of former police officer Derek Chauvin on his neck over a counterfeit $20 dollar bill. ”I can’t breathe,” Floyd said. Nine minutes and twenty nine seconds later, George Floyd took his final breath. Now nearly a year later Derek Chauvin is found guilty of second degree murder, third degree murder and second degree manslaughter.
March 23 marked the beginning of Chauvin’s trial, starting with live jury selection. Lasting 11 days, prospective jurors were asked extensive questions about the Black Lives Matter movement such as if they went to protest or if they had seen the video of George Floyds death and how many times. In the end the jury was very diverse consisting of four white women, two white men,three black men, one black woman and two women of mixed race.
“It was tense every day. I wasn’t nervous, but it was stressful. It was a lot of pressure,” Juror Brandon Mitchell told CNN.
In opening statements, both the defense and prosecution revealed what points they would be making in this case. The prosecution focused on unnecessary use of force, arguing that Chauvins decisions led to George Floyds death, whereas the defense focused on saying that Floyds’ death was drug related and Chauvin was distracted by the crowd that had gathered around the scene. The prosecution made their case first calling 38 witnesses to the stand; including 911 operator Jena Scurry, Christopher Martin the store clerk at Cup Foods who called the police, many members of the Minneapolis Police Department, over five medical professionals and countless witnesses who were on the scene; including the young lady who shot the viral video, Darnella Frazier.
“I watched the video last year and couldn’t watch it again because it was too painful. I shouldn’t be as afraid of cops as I am right now. I fear for my life, my dad’s life, the life of my baby cousins and every other black person I know because I don’t want them to be next,” sophomore Kendall Elizondo said.
The prosecution also brought in multiple members of the police force to help argue that the use of force demonstrated by Chauvin was unnecessary. Many of the officers, including Katie Blackwell who formerly ran the training for the Minneapolis Police Department stated that suspects who are detained should never be held in prone position for extended periods of time; and instead should be put “in the side recovery position as soon as possible” or there is a risk of asphyxiation.
“There are more ways to detain someone than kneeling on their neck. He was trained to detain people that will try to resist arrest so that is not a viable excuse to me,” Elizondo said.
On the other hand, the defense called only 7 witnesses to the stand including use of force expert Barry Brodd. Brodd contradicted the idea that keeping Floyd in the prone position wasn’t justified, saying that using the prone position “doesn’t hurt”. The defense also brought in Dr.David Fowler, a retired forensic pathologist. Fowler suggested to the jury that despite what the prosecutors presented, Floyds death was “undetermined”.
“Mr. Floyd was very clearly and audibly telling the officer that he could not breathe and Officer Chauvin refused to take his knee off of his throat,” Sophomore Anna Mccann said.
With all the information presented, the jury was set off to come up with a verdict. After over 10 hours of deliberation the jurors convicted Derek Chauvin guilty of all three charges. Sentencing for Chauvin is to be set in approximately 8 weeks.
“Him (Chauvin) being found guilty is the exception to the exception given most police murders never even go to trial. Him going to trial was rare, him being convicted of a crime everyone saw was a gift from God,” Elizondo said.