Verdict: Derek Chauvin Guilty For The Murder of George Floyd
There was a time when I followed trials and posted daily on this blog the videos or reports of what happened in court. Although I still follow trials, I’m no longer able to write daily posts.
I watched former Minneapolis, MN police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial. When I was unable to watch live, I recorded it and watched in the evening. The two most impressive witnesses for the prosecution, in my opinion, were George Floyd’s girlfriend Courtney Ross, and pulmonary expert Dr. Martin Tobin.
Courtney Ross extinguished all demonizing of George’s opiate addiction. Dr. Tobin calmly explained how George died, even pointing out when his brain stopped receiving oxygen and his body went into seizure.
In this case, Derek Chauvin was held accountable for his decisions and actions that caused the death of George Floyd. As his eyes darted back and forth, up and down, Chauvin heard verdicts on three counts; 2nd degree murder, 3rd degree murder, and 2nd degree manslaughter — all guilty. He opted to have the judge decide his sentencing, which is scheduled 8 weeks from now.
The below video is the reading of the verdict. George, you are now free to rest in peace.
Posted on 04/20/2021, in George Floyd, Uncategorized and tagged Derek Chauvin, George Floyd, trial, verdict. Bookmark the permalink. 33 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
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I couldn’t watch it at all. I read the highlights at the end of each day. It was too painful to hope. I actually cried at the verdict. Finally! One act of accountability on our way to police reform. I think I watched Chauvin get handcuffed and remove multiple times. Personally, I don’t think this verdict can be overturned. It took the jury less than 12 hours to reach a verdict. That right there tells you how clear the evidence was against that monster.
WordPress won’t let me post so I hope you get this.
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Cielo! How great to see you. Yes, your comment is here.
I too watched him being handcuffed at least 5 times.
During trial it was my impression that defense attorney Nelson argued as Chauvin wanted. Some of it was petty, in my opinion. I don’t see what he can appeal because it will require more than his opinion — it will require proof that the judge allowed or disallowed something that caused the jury to reach its verdict.
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Reblogged this on SUPABUTTERFLY.
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Thanks for the reblog, dear friend.
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Xena I’m so glad you are here to see with us all the relief that the blindfold over the eyes of justice, while holding her scale still weighs the facts and hears the evidence in this incomprehensible case. The evidence that so clearly informed the verdict, of which the jury returned in a mere 10 hours tells the country this kind of violence will not be tolerated anymore. This is my hope. The clouds part and the sun – blind to the color of our skin – shines on us all. The earth holds us within its gravity, one and the same regardless of our beliefs. The rain cools the body of every single living being regardless of its origin. And our souls are colorless – though some are clear while others are shaded by guilt. Our nation’s growing pains, though difficult, are necessary to raise us up from the ignorance of racism, sexism, and all reasons that people claim that make one lesser than another.
May this be the next break in the chains that bind some to long held disregard for the rights of everyone and every living thing to peaceably exist in a free and just society. The jurors were given a difficult, yet clear direction and no one could have had any reasonable doubt that even a person who is hired to protect and serve everyone equally brings their ugly opinions under the aegis of the law to murderer another human being without cause. The only cause in my opinion was racism and the belief that the gun and the shield allowed him to do harm with abandon. I hope with my heart and soul that this verdict makes others like this now-convict think again before committing violence against those powerless to defend themselves. Fear should not overcome our citizens to be trapped in an irresponsible system that turns a blind eye to so many acts of violent crime that came before.
George Floyd died an unwarranted and senseless death. But may he live on in our hearts and may his life imbue our society to insure that we do not have to live in fear of those hired to protect us from the acts they themselves have committed with abandon. George Floyd lives on as a representative of all human beings regardless of color that we may be free of the handcuffs of fear and the bars behind which corruption hides. Peace & love to you. ❤️
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Ilene,
So excellency expressed.
As a Flower Child, I always hoped that peace and love rule the hearts of all human beings. There a righteous judgment that holds all equal and accountable regardless of the color of their skin, their national origin, and even the position they hold. I still hope. Deep inside during the trial was the thought that all it would take was one juror to think of George Floyd as the Black man who got what he deserved because he failed to subjugate himself to a White police officer. Then came witnesses about police training when suspects are in crisis.
Smart prosecutors. They got over that hurdle.
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Sometimes it seems that a large number of human beings, however precious their lives, can be considered disposable to a nation. And when the young children of those people take notice of this, they’re vulnerable to begin perceiving themselves as worthless. It’s atrociously unjust and desperately needs to stop. Although their devaluation as human beings is basically based on their race, it still reminds me of the devaluation, albeit perhaps subconsciously, of the daily civilian lives lost (a.k.a. “casualties”) in protractedly devastating civil war zones and sieges. At some point, they can end up receiving just a few column inches in the First World’s daily news.
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Your comment about war raised a thought for me. In all organizations, there is a chain of command. There was a time when kings went to battle with their soldiers. There was also a time when company owners worked along with employees and hired someone to take care of the paperwork and reports. If there was any danger in the job, the owner was as vulnerable as those hired. As time went on, man decided that their position made them superior so others were placed in harm’s way. It’s about power.
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Very interesting. Regardless of their decision to bring their nation to war, one has to admire the King or Queen fighting alongside his/her soldiers (e.g. Isabella of Spain, Warrior Queen, 1451-1504). And also for big business owners working alongside their employees. …
I wanted to include with my original post the analogy of unwanted feral and homeless cats, but I didn’t want it to be misinterpreted as equating the great suffering by Black people with that of cats.
About three years ago, it was reported that Surrey, B.C. had/has approximately 36,000 feral and stray cats, so many of which are allowed to suffer severe malnourishment, debilitating injury and/or infection by callously neglectful municipal government as well as individual residents who choose to remain silent. It’s as though there’s a prevailing mentality of feline disposability; a subconscious human perception that the value of such animal life (if not even human life in regularly war-torn or overpopulated famine-stricken global regions) is somehow lessened by its overabundance and protracted conditions under which it suffers.
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What bothers me are the law-enforcers who’ll storm into suspects’ homes, screaming, with fully-automatic machineguns or handguns drawn, at the homes’ occupants (to “face down!”), all of whom, including infants, can be permanently traumatized from the experience. On some occasions, these ‘law-enforcers’ force their way into the wrong home, altogether. That’s potentially when open-fire can and does occur, followed by wrongful deaths to be “impartially” investigated.
I’m led to believe that some of these (mostly male) people get into such fields of employment for the sheer power-trip of it all. Perhaps people who deliberately choose and train for such professions of armed and unarmed authority (e.g. store security guards and SWAT teams) should introspectively ask themselves WHY they’re willfully entering the profession.
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I’ve watched videos of police screaming commands and the truth is, if the yelled at me like that, I would not understand what they are saying. Yelling is a form of communication that warns others of danger. My first inclination would be what danger am I in and should I run from it?
We’re on the same page as to why people want jobs in today’s law enforcement. Many of them are recruited when they are discharged from the military. The promise of private employment after training in the military is not true. Many private companies require much more than the training military personnel receive — with the exception of handling weapons and shooting.
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A white police officer in America is found guilty of murdering a black man who lay helpless on the ground, while the world watched, and every American is unequivically shocked by the verdict. Black Americans didn’t believe it would happen. White Americans didn’t believe it could happen. And that (to me) is the most damning evidence of what the true cost of America’s racial caste system has been, and the horrible price we all have paid for it. 😦
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xmatman,
(((Applause))) EXACTLY!
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I believed he would be found guilty. But I was also scared at the last minute that it wouldn’t happen. I’m sure the entire neighborhood could hear me yelling yes, Yes, YES!
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Two sides,
I believed that Chauvin should be found guilty, but after seeing jury results when victims are demonized, I still had doubts. Speaking of the neighborhood hearing you, I scared my dog. LOL!
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PLUS he has a tax evasion trial in June as well. His wife, who I think divorced him to hide their assets from being seized, will also face trial.
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Yes, Cielo. I think he has to be in court on June 30th, which is right around the time of his sentencing on the 3 murder convictions.
Here’s a video on his court approved divorce settlement.
Back around Nov. 2020, the judge in the divorce case denied the proposed settlement that transferred all assets to Derek.
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So relieved he is in prison.
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Cindy,
Yes. Turned out that although he has not yet been sentenced, they moved him from the county jail to a state prison where me might be safer. Funny thing when those who have sworn to uphold the law violate it, and end up in the same institutions as those they arrested.
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Hi Xena, thank you for this great post! I am from Australia, and am constantly trying to learn more about the situation in America in relation to gun violence and police enforcement. However, I am aware I won’t ever been able to gain an in-depth understanding, which is why I’ve found blogging a great way to connect with those who are more knowledgeable than I! I’m interested as to what the community response has been where you live in relation to the decision? Has there been support and a sense of progress? I have also posted an article on my blog about my thoughts on the judgement. If you have time, I’d love to hear your thoughts on my article 🙂 Take care!
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Nice meeting you and thanks for the comment. You asked about the community response where I live. Other than maybe 20 seconds on local television announcing the verdict, one local television station gave a print version of reactions. I think they interviewed 4eople, (2 being attorneys). Here’s the link. https://www.wifr.com/2021/04/21/locals-react-to-verdict-in-derek-chauvin-trial/
It might be good for me to point out that I live in a small town with a small minority population.
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Thank you very much for sharing the link! I will have a look 🙂
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At a very young and therefore impressionable age, I was emphatically told by my mother (who’s of Eastern European heritage) about the exceptionally kind and caring nature of our Black family doctor. She never had anything disdainful to say about people of color; in fact she loves to watch/listen to the Middle Eastern and Indian subcontinental dancers and musicians on the multicultural channels. This had a positive effect upon me. Had she (for whatever reason) told me the opposite about the doctor, however, I could have aged while blindly linking his color with an unjustly cynical view of him and, eventually, all Black people.
Some people — who may now be in an armed authority capacity — were raised with a distrust or blind dislike of other racial groups.
The first step towards changing our irrationally biased thinking can be our awareness of it and its origin. But until then, I believe, such biased sentiments should either be kept to oneself or counselled, especially when considering the mentality is easily inflamed by anger.
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Frank,
Thanks for your comment. I paid a visit to your blog and plan to return. You are a very good writer. Your comment caused me to think back some years to when another person and I discussed racial equality. What I found is that why I was raised in a diverse community with a diverse family, she had not. I attended integrated schools, worked with people originally from various countries worldwide, and shared in food dishes from around the world. She had not. In our conversation, she sincerely tried to relate to me, but it was by comparing herself to me in terms of cultural matters.
Sadly, because of racial oppression, many cities were/are segregated. People do not have opportunity to learn of others and like your mom, appreciate different cultures.
Re:
Exactly. That is what prejudice/pre-judging is. They do not see people as individuals regardless of the color of their skin.
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Thank you.
I can recall how, beginning as a young boy sitting with Mom while watching the original release of the 1977 miniseries ‘Roots’, shocked and bewildered I’d always get by Black people being brutalized and told they were not welcome — while they, as a people, had been violently forced here from their African home as slaves! And, as a people, there has been no real refuge here for them, since. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, the narrator notes that, like the South, the Civil War era northern states also hated Black people but happened to hate slavery more.
As an aside: I occasionally muse that what humankind may need to suffer in order to survive the long term from ourselves is an even greater nemesis (perhaps a multi-tentacled ET) than our own politics and perceptions of differences, against which we could all unite, attack and defeat—all during which we’d be forced to work closely side-by-side together and witness just how humanly similar we are to each other. (Albeit, I’ve been told that one or more human parties might actually attempt to forge an allegiance with the ETs to better their own chances for survival, thus indicating that our wanting human condition may be even worse than I had thought.)
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I was nervous, but I was surprised that he was found guilty on all three counts given how other cases go. I know it’s not some be all-end all situation, but I hope this leads to a lot more accountability and eventually justice. It’s also disconcerting with the other police brutality cases going on close to the verdict and after, but it would be great if it was the first domino for the injustice system to become a real justice system. One can only hope.
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Had there not been the 9 minute video, Chauvin might have been convicted only for 2nd degree manslaughter. The sight of him casually with his hands in his pocket while mocking Floyd’s pleas was enough for the jury. It was intentional. It was in defiance for the by-standers. Hopefully Chauvin will be sentenced to the maximum.
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Good point which is sad. The whole world saw that murder. It was very disturbing with how casual Derek Chauvin was. I hope he gets the maximum as well as the other police getting arrested, too.
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