Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury in the George Floyd Murder Case notified the judge that they had come to a verdict. The judge read the verdict which found Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts. He read each count and its findings:

Count 1 – guilty, Count 2 – guilty, and Count 3 – guilty 

Former President Barack Obama reacted to Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict with the following tweet: “Today, a jury did the right thing. But true justice requires much more.” President Obama also noted:

“True justice requires that we come to terms with the fact that Black Americans are treated differently, every day. It requires us to recognize that millions of our friends, family and fellow citizens live in fear that their next encounter with law enforcement could be their last. And it requires us to do the sometimes thankless, often difficult, but always necessary work in making the America we know more like the America we believe in.”

After reading each verdict, the Judge asked each member of the jury if the findings were their true and correct verdicts and they each confirmed yes. During the few hours that they deliberated, there were no questions from the jury, nor any points of contention, nor any inquiry from them that they were confused over the charges or the evidence presented, which suggested agreement and consensus among the jury.

As this day of reckoning played out, the George Floyd family and their attorneys were gathered at a downtown hotel as they heard the verdict. During the days leading up to the trial, family members repeatedly issued statements that they were deeply moved in the diversity of the protestors. They said they knew they could not control the anger people felt but urged protestors to remember George Floyd and urged them to show peace and calm across the country.

The Jury, age 20 to 60, was comprised of 5 men and 7 women and reflected diversity. There were 4 blacks, 6 whites, and 2 multiracial members. The judge announced that sentencing would take place in 8 weeks as he revoked Chauvin’s bond and remanded him in the custody of the Sheriff.

In addition to the guilty verdicts, the family received a pretrial settlement of $27 million, which is the largest pretrial settlement in American history for this type of death.

As the Prosecution tried the case against Chauvin, they emphasized that this was never an anti-police case. It was not about punishing cops, it was about punishing a bad cop.