President Joe Biden said the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict “can be a giant step forward on the march toward justice in America,” as the world continues to react after the former officer was convicted in the death of George Floyd.
Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke at the White House after the verdict.
“A measure of justice isn’t the same as equal justice,” Harris said.
Chauvin, 45, was found guilty on second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges in Floyd’s death, all of which required the jury to conclude that his actions were a “substantial causal factor” in Floyd’s death and that his use of force was unreasonable.
Floyd’s brother, Philonise, said “Emmett Till was the first George Floyd,” and “It seems like this is a neverending cycle,” according to reporter Steve Herman.
Floyd died last May after Chauvin, a white officer, pinned his knee on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for about 9 ½ minutes in a case that triggered worldwide protests, violence and a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S.
The jury — six white people and six people who are Black or multiracial — deliberated over parts of two days in Minneapolis, a city on edge against another outbreak of unrest. The verdict arrived after about 10 hours of deliberation, 45 witnesses and three weeks of testimony.
Judge Peter Cahill said sentencing would happen in about eight weeks. Chauvin’s bail was revoked, and he was taken back into custody following the verdict.
The jury, anonymous by order of the judge and sequestered until it reached a verdict, spent just a few hours on the task Monday after the day was mostly consumed by closing arguments in which prosecutors argued that Chauvin squeezed the life out of Floyd last May.
The verdict was read in a courthouse ringed with concrete barriers and razor wire and patrolled by National Guard troops, in a city on edge against another round of unrest — not just because of the Chauvin case but because of the deadly police shooting of a young Black man, Daunte Wright, in a Minneapolis suburb April 11.
Floyd, 46, died May 25 after being arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes at a corner market. He panicked, pleaded that he was claustrophobic and struggled with police when they tried to put him in a squad car. They put him on the ground instead.
The centerpiece of the case was the excruciating bystander video of Floyd gasping repeatedly, “I can’t breathe” and onlookers yelling at Chauvin to stop as the officer pressed his knee on or close to Floyd’s neck for what authorities say was 9 ½ minutes. Floyd slowly went silent and limp.
Prosecutors played the footage at the earliest opportunity, during opening statements, with Jerry Blackwell telling the jury: “Believe your eyes.” And it was shown over and over, analyzed one frame at a time by witnesses on both sides.
In the wake of Floyd’s death, demonstrations and scattered violence broke out in Minneapolis, around the country and beyond. The furor also led to the removal of Confederate statues and other symbols such as Aunt Jemima.
Medical experts for the prosecution said Floyd died of asphyxia, or lack of oxygen, because his breathing was constricted by the way he was held down on his stomach, his hands cuffed behind him, a knee on his neck and his face jammed against the ground.
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson called a police use-of-force expert and a forensic pathologist to help make the case that Chauvin acted reasonably against a struggling suspect and that Floyd died because of an underlying heart condition and his illegal drug use.
