The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin starts today – 10 months after the death of George Floyd – and the stakes are high for race relations in America.
After a complex jury selection, the stage is set for jurors to hear opening statements on Monday.
The prosecution will present its case first and it is highly likely the biggest piece of evidence will be the video of Chauvin with his knee on Mr Floyd‘s neck for nearly nine minutes during his arrest in May last year.
George Floyd Killing: The Trial – From today at 3pm we will bring you live continuous coverage of court proceedings in the trial of Derek Chauvin on our website, app, YouTube and Sky Pop Up Channel on 524
The defence will argue Chauvin did not cause Mr Floyd’s death
The mobile phone footage was shared online, viewed tens of millions of times and sparked months of worldwide protests against racial injustice and police brutality.
The court will hear accounts of the events that unfolded on 25 May last year when police responded to a call from a convenience store where Mr Floyd had allegedly used a fake $20 bill.
Chauvin was one of the officers who attended the scene but what the jury will have to decide is if his restraint of Mr Floyd was the cause of his death.
Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to the three charges against him – second and third degree murder and second degree manslaughter.
The second degree murder charge is the most serious, with a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
George Floyd’s death sparked protests across the world
For him to be found guilty of this charge prosecutors must prove he intentionally assaulted Mr Floyd which led to his death, even if his actions were not premeditated.
The defence will argue Chauvin did not cause Mr Floyd’s death.
Chauvin’s defence team is expected to introduce evidence showing that Mr Floyd could have died from other factors and that Chauvin did not have intent to harm him.
Minneapolis was calm ahead of the trial but emotions are high. The court house has been surrounded by heavy security in recent weeks and a ring of steel now exists in central Minneapolis which could be used to seal off a large area of downtown in the event of unrest.
There’s no way to predict what a jury will ultimately decide but many believe the verdict will be a tipping point – a ruling on where the country stands on race relations – and how it reacts.
The outcome is uncertain and the stakes are high.
Perhaps the media should show the video of the police trying to talk him into the police car before he fought with police!
George Floyd was complaining he could not breath when he was sitting in his car, providing the appearance he did not want to cooperate with the police. While the death of Mr. Floyd is tragic, the simple fact is that the restraining technique used by Officer Chauvin is legal in most jurisdictions when a suspect is resisting arrest and since Mr. Floyd appeared to resist arrest by not following the lawful order of a police officer, the only logical moral outcome is a not guilty verdict. But most of us are aware that the Black community considers any death of a Black person by a white cop, whether justified or not, as a crime against their race. We can only pray that emotions do not rule the police officers or anyone’s trial, because that would truly be a travesty of justice.
I feel like if this is a pivotal decision for race relations, the press is saying that Chauvin must be found guilty–to improve race relations–whether he is guilty or not. What a shame! His case should not be used merely to appease people or set a precedent. I am praying for a fair and just outcome. Agree with you.
Given that we now know Floyd died of a drug overdose, the trial is just for show. All the racial violence by blm terrorists was for a lie. The left created the blm terror group to divide Americans, and stoke fear. blm terrorists are the dumbest group of idiots on the planet. The left has been manipulating this group of useful idiots for decades now.
Yes, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I hope Officer Chauvin will receive a fair trial, but I doubt it will happen as there are too many race baiters wanting his blood. Personally, I do not believe he is guilty of any of the charges.
He will not, it is all a show for the leftist and rigged for them all the police need to tell the left and the blm bunch when ever they have a problem to take care of it themselves that they don’t want to get involved
If the full length video of the knee on neck is shown, then the entire episode, from the moment he left the store and was approached by the police with body cams on, and throughout his resistance, protesting, begging, crying, and breaking down should be shown in it’s entirety as well. Just as important.
Get ready for another spring and summer of ‘peaceful protesting’, a.k.a., also known as rioting and looting, with the MSM and dems/libs stirring the pot.
He should be exonerated. He was just doing what was taught in law enforcement school.
His soul is still burning in hell. Plenty of room for the rest of the liberal thugs.
The jury will have riots and their own future safety on their minds and will convict him of the lowest charge even if they know he is innocent. The prosecution knows this and that is why they gave the jury a way out. That is standard procedure by prosecutors when they know they don’t have a case but face public and political pressure in cases like this.
Too bad we can’t just have justice but everything is political now. And no one wants to put up with BLM riots again.
Praying for fairness and law and order in our country.
The thing is, they’re right. This will have an impact. If they throw the book at the cop, it’ll be a sign to white people that they’re now the victims. That they’ll never be able to defend themselves against anyone who isn’t white without being seen as a monster.
The result? The victimization of an entire race, which will lead them to retaliating in various ways against the race attacking them. And the party guilty of this? BLM and the LEFT. They created this monster. And it’s going to explode out of their control. And that’s the sad part. Their desire to have absolute control is going to leave everyone with a monster to contend with.
Have you noticed how the MSM is abetting ths fraud being played out?
Every time you hear about the trial on the news, the narrative is that “officer Chavin is on trial for the
murder of George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes”. No “accused”, no describing
Floyd as anything other than a Black man pulled from his car and murdered without cause.
The press will be complicit in the destruction of property when Chauvin is found innocent.
The career-criminal Floyd died as a consequence of his own actions, ending a life full of crime.
That he was sainted by Blacks and the media shows how upside-down our society really has become.
This is not a trial. It’s a lynching.
The threat of civil unrest has plenty of precedent in influencing juries. Witness the Malice Green incident in Detroit when two police officers were convicted of second-degree murder under the threat of rioting. Malice Green died in the back end of an E.M.S. vehicle of cocaine-induced heart failure, not from any direct injury imposed by the officers. Rodney King, a 300 lb. black man resisted arrest with violence, throwing police officers around and flailing madly before being subdued with superior force by at least six officers. Only the subduing portion of that video was disseminated by the local and national media, resulting in a completely false picture of what actually happened. Scores of people died as a result of media malpractice. The jury which acquitted the officers of felony undoubtedly was shown that video in its entirety. Atlanta, Georgia—same one-sided media bias. The George Floyd incident will doubtless feature the same malpractice, ignoring his potentially fatal overdose of fentanyl, ignoring his string of prior felonies, ignoring his “I can’t breathe” pronouncements prior to any physical interaction with police. There will be loss of life and immense property damage resulting from this. We will all suffer the consequences. Should we all just surrender to mob violence?
Ok first of all the guy put himself in harms way by breaking the law. Second he was taking drugs! But third the cop should not have put his knee on the guys neck for 9 min come on! So he did something wrong! However the other cops there did nothing wrong! I have been on many juries and I am a white male who does not believe in white privilege. I believe the cop would have done the same thing no mater the color if you were fighting. However once the man stopped fighting the cop should have got off his neck. Then guess what he would be free and none of this BS would be happening over this case anyway. Just my opinion!
I remember the Malice Green debacle… accusations of smacking Green’s head with a spun aluminum flshlight.
The manufacturer of the infamous flashlights were quite well made.
After the “incident” they were produced in designer colors… Midnight Black, violent blue, bloody red, and most famous, malice green… Love it when the story has a happy ending.
He murdered himself with a drug overdose he wasn’t suffocated by the police officer per the medical examiner. End of story!
Retired LEO here who has had the choke hold demonstrated on him. If your air is cut off, you can’t talk. Period. And if your carotids are compressed, you will be out like a light in about a second. Been there, done that. Floyd had a fatal level of fentanyl, a central nervous system paralytic drug designed for use in surgery. Seven nanograms per milliliter of blood is fatal, and he had eleven nanograms. He was saying he couldn’t breathe long before the knee was placed on his neck because the fentanyl was beginning to paralyze his autonomic nervous system. The only fair verdict is not guilty, but I am afraid that the judge and jury are so cowed by this damn mob that they will convict him. Take it from somebody who has been there: there are very few police forces in this country incapable of subduing a mob of thugs IF their hands are untied.
What a crock of BS, they should have given him a medal for getting rid of a useless drug addicted thug.
Hopefully the jury will see the video from the beginning showing how libby snow flake acted instead of only showing the end of the video where libby snow flake floyd george laying on the ground.
I believe the verdict is is already decided, it will be “bring the guilty bastard in, we’ll give him a fair trial and then hang him.”
When you are suffocating you cannot talk and shout out etc. If your airway is obstructed for two or three minutes you pass out. Eight, nine minutes of “pleading” ? Mr Floyd was not choked to death. My informed opinion, based on the media reports of the autopsy, is he underwent carotid massage or compression from Officer Chauvin ‘s knee, developed bradycardia, and, given his poor heart condition and the dose of both amphetamines and Fentanyl in his system, he went into cardiac arrest. Unsuccessful CPR because the drug induced arrythmia. No manslaughter, no homicide. Maybe excess force or aggravated assault BUT he was resisting arrest…
Too bad we can’t just have justice but everything is political now. And no one wants to put up with BLM riots again.
Praying for fairness and law and order in our country.
Certain groups of people do not need a reason to riot, burn, loot, destroy, kill, harass, etc. These are the same ones that believe Floyd is equivalent to the altar boy at the local church! Who would have ever thought that the media would support and uphold criminals rather than law enforcement who have to deal with these slime bags 24/7.