Column: Can we expect peace after Chauvin verdict? It s not likely
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Local teams, athletes praise Chauvin verdict, call it needed step forward
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Publishing date: Apr 20, 2021 • 14 minutes ago • 5 minute read • Demonstrators march through downtown Minneapolis demanding justice for George Floyd and Daunte Wright while jury deliberations begin for former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin s murder trial at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis April 19, 2021. Photo by Octavio Jones /REUTERS
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MINNEAPOLIS Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on Tuesday of murdering George Floyd, a milestone in the fraught racial history of the United States and a rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of Black Americans.
A 12-member jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty of all three charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, including bystanders, police officials and medical experts. Deliberations began on Monday and lasted just over 10 hours.
Watching the horrific video of George Floyd dying under the knee of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, even before charges were filed last year, I called it the way I saw it: Murder.
I m often accused of being pro-police to a fault. But for me the video was enough. Just as with the Laquan McDonald case in Chicago the Black teenager shot 16 times by a white cop it was the video.
But I wasn t in that Minneapolis courtroom for the Chauvin trial. The jurors were in the courtroom. They made their decision on Tuesday: Guilty on all three counts of murder and manslaughter.