Killing George Floyd

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Crime scene on May 30, 2020, five days after the event
Peaceful demonstration in Eugene, Oregon on June 7, 2020
Riots in Minneapolis

The killing of George Floyd occurred on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis , Minnesota : White police officer Derek Chauvin publicly killed 46-year-old African American George Perry Floyd, who was lying on the ground , by spending nine minutes and 29 seconds at full body weight kneeling on his neck and, despite numerous requests from Floyd and bystanders, forced his breath off until his death. Three other police officers involved did not intervene. A video witness to the incident caused a sensation worldwide. The four police officers involved in the operation were dismissed after the video became known and on suspicion of a homicideimprisoned. In the United States and around the world, widespread protests following the incident in the United States and around the world were directed against police violence and racism under the motto " Black Lives Matter ". After riots and looting, which resulted in several deaths, curfews were imposed in 40 US cities and the National Guard was deployed from the end of May 2020 . In this context, there were further cases of police violence, which were criticized as disproportionate. Amnesty International documented in an August 2020 report "multiple and serious human rights violations" by the police.

In April 2021, the lead defendant Derek Chauvin was found guilty of bodily harm resulting in death and negligent homicide. In June 2021, he was sentenced to 22.5 years' imprisonment. He has the option of calling . The trial against the other defendants is scheduled to begin in March 2022.

course

Police operation and killing of George Floyd

On May 25, 2020, Memorial Day in the United States , 46-year-old African American George Perry Floyd bought a pack of cigarettes shortly before 8:00 pm at Cup Foods, a grocery store on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis . He then got into his car parked across the street. The $ 20 bill Floyd had paid for was believed in the store to be false . Two employees followed Floyd to his car and demanded that the cigarettes be handed over. However, Floyd refused to return them. An employee called the police, which is what Minnesota businesses are required to do if they suspect counterfeit money. During a phone call with the police, the employee described that Floyd was sitting in a blue vehicle in front of the store. He suspected that Floyd was "terribly drunk".

Then a patrol car , manned by the two police officers James Kueng and Thomas Lane, went to "Cup Foods". At about 8:08 p.m., the two of them entered the shop and shortly afterwards went across the street to George Floyd's car. There were two other adults in the SUV besides Floyd. Lane moved to the driver's side and tapped his flashlight on the side window. When Floyd didn't respond, Lane pointed his gun at him. He asked him to put his hands on the steering wheel ("Put your fucking hands up right now!"). At this point, the officers had not yet informed Floyd of the reason for their intervention. Floyd followed Kueng and Lane's instructions, sometimes reluctantly, began to cry and mentioned several times that he had been shot at in the past. A friend of Floyd's in the back seat of his car confirmed this. The officers then intended to arrest Floyd, still without giving a reason. After Lane asked Floyd to get out of his car unsuccessfully, he pulled him out of the vehicle. There was a tussle. Lane handcuffed Floyd . Floyd pleaded with Lane many times not to shoot him ("Please don't shoot me, Mr. Officer. Please, don't shoot me man. Please. Can you not shoot me, man?"). Lane asked Floyd and his girlfriend why he was acting erratically and if he was under the influence of drugs. The friend replied that this is how Floyd reacts when a gun is pointed at him. Floyd himself replied that he had done nothing wrong and that he was scared ("I am scared, man.")

At 8:12 p.m. Lane put the detainee on the ground in front of a restaurant. There was a brief conversation in which Lane Floyd explained the reason for his arrest and asked him about his identity. Floyd kept crying. When Lane asked him again if he had "ingested" anything, Floyd admitted drug use. Shortly thereafter, Floyd was led across the street to her patrol car by two cops, Lane and Kueng. Across the street, Floyd stiffened and went down. He was then picked up again by the two policemen and pushed against the door of the patrol car. Floyd said she was just recovering from COVID-19 and was claustrophobic . He asked to be allowed to lie on the floor. The police tried to put Floyd in the back seat of the patrol car, but Floyd initially defended himself. He offered to sit in the front of the car, but the officers did not allow him to do so. When the officer Kueng pulled the resisting Floyd over the back seat of the patrol car to the other side of the vehicle, he said for the first time that he could not breathe ("I can't breathe").

In the meantime, a second patrol car had arrived with the two police officers Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao. The senior chauvin took command. Floyd had started to bleed from his mouth during the renewed scramble. Derek Chauvin fixed Floyd on the street from around 8:19 PM. Floyd made no resistance.

Several people began filming the scene. The videos show Chauvin pressing his left knee onto Floyd's neck - a practice banned in Minneapolis and most other US police departments. You can also see that his colleagues Kueng and Lane simultaneously exert pressure on Floyd's body and legs, while Thao stands next to them and holds back passers-by. When Floyd kept saying "I can't breathe!", A passerby asked the officers to let him breathe. Floyd also warns that he is about to die, and Thao tells him to relax.

The police officers present on site called an ambulance - initially without declaring the operation as an emergency. If they reported again, they upgraded the operation to an emergency. Chauvin kept his knee pressed against Floyd's neck even after the ambulance was alerted. When a passerby called to Floyd to get into the police car, Floyd replied that he couldn't and that his stomach, neck, face and everything else would hurt. He also asked for water and pleaded again not to be killed. Several times he called, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy." When Kueng replied that Floyd could speak and that this was a sign that he was okay, one of the witnesses contradicted him and asked the officers to put Floyd in the patrol car. He also accused them of enjoying the situation.

At 8:25 pm, George Floyd passed out. Passers-by pointed this out to the officers and asked them to check his pulse . Kueng felt his wrist, but couldn't find a pulse. The three police officers remained seated on Floyd and made no attempt to provide first aid . According to Chauvin's later indictment , Lane asked him if they should put Floyd on his side, but Chauvin said no. Floyd had previously stated almost 30 times that he couldn't breathe.

At around 8:27 p.m., an ambulance arrived at the scene. A paramedic checked Floyd's pulse again, in vain. Cop Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for almost a minute after the ambulance arrived. According to later indictments, the knee was there for a total of 8 minutes and 46 seconds, including 2 minutes 53 seconds after Floyd passed out, according to prosecutors. The public prosecutor later admitted a calculation error and gave the total duration as 7 minutes and 46 seconds. During the trial, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell argued that the total duration was 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

At around 8:29 pm, the unconscious Floyd was put in the ambulance and taken away. Resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful. At 9:25 p.m., George Floyd was pronounced dead in the emergency room at the local hospital.

The police subsequently issued a press release entitled "Man dies of medical incident while interacting with the police." According to this portrayal of a police officer, who said he had not looked at the bodycams of the police officers involved, they handcuffed a drugged man after resistance and recognized a medical emergency, whereupon the man died in hospital. The circumstances of the death, as well as Chauvin's kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes, were not mentioned in the representation.

George Floyd

A portrait by a street artist in memory of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin, May 2020

George Perry Floyd was born on October 14, 1973 in Fayetteville , North Carolina . He grew up in the state of Texas with his mother in the social housing estate Cuney Homes in an Afro - American district of Houston , attended Yates High School there and played in 1992 as a tight end on their American football team. After his high school Floyd received a basketball scholarship at South Florida State College near Avon Park . In August 1997, he dropped out and returned to Houston. He then enrolled at Texas A&M University in Kingsville , where he also played basketball and dropped out again after a while. With DJ Screw he recorded several rap and hip-hop pieces as "Big Floyd" .

Between 1997 and 2007, Floyd was convicted of nine criminal offenses in the Harris County Judicial District, according to Daily Mail research , including drug offenses, theft, trespassing, denial of identification to a police officer, and robbery with a lethal weapon. After several prison terms of less than a year each, Floyd was sentenced to five years in prison for armed robbery with accomplices in 2009. After his release in 2014, he moved to Minneapolis for a Church work program. There he initially worked as a security guard in a facility of the Salvation Army in the city center . His friend Courteney Ross was a teacher there at Edison High School and also taught Daunte Wright , who was later killed in a police operation . Later he also worked as a truck driver. His last job as a security guard in a Mexican nightclub in Minneapolis was lost due to the measures taken against the COVID-19 pandemic . Floyd was the father of five children and the grandfather of two grandchildren.

Rapper Trae tha Truth , former NBA basketball player Stephen Jackson and the Bishop of Gaborone in Botswana , Franklyn Atese Nubuasah , were good friends of Floyd, according to media reports. As a devout Christian, he was in his parish active.

Perpetrators and participants

Four officers were directly involved in the police action against George Floyd. All four were released after the death of Floyd from the police force and a homicide or aid charged to this and arrested.

Derek Michael Chauvin , 44, was raised in a humble home in West St. Paul , Minnesota . His mother was a housewife, his father an accountant. When Chauvin was seven years old, his parents divorced. Within five years he attended four different elementary schools. After graduating from Park High School in Cottage Grove , Chauvin first worked as a cook, including for a fast food chain. He later joined the US Army and worked there for the military police . At times, Chauvin did his job in Hohenfels, Bavaria . In 2001, Chauvin joined the Minneapolis Police Department. According to the local police, at least 22 complaints or internal investigations have been initiated against the white officer Chauvin since he took up his duties there, an unusually high number according to the citizens' initiative "Communities United Against Police Brutality", which should have triggered an "alarm and a review". According to various sources, one or two of the complaints were sanctioned with reprimands. According to the citizens' initiative, one of the cases was about degrading language. Another complaint related to a traffic stop where Chauvin allegedly pulled a woman out of her car and searched it after exceeding the speed slightly. In another 2013 case in which he aimed a gun at teenagers who shot passers-by with toy guns, a supervisor apologized for Chauvin's behavior.

Chauvin fired two shots at people during his service, and when the police fired another shot, he was part of the emergency team without shooting himself. In 2006, Chauvin and five other colleagues shot Native American Wayne Reyes, who, according to police reports, had previously stabbed two people and pointed a shotgun at the officers. Reyes was shot and fatally injured by a total of 43 shots within a few seconds after getting out of the truck with which he had escaped. A grand jury later found the use of firearms to be justified. For his mission, Chauvin was awarded the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor , an award for bravery of police officers. The then District Attorney and later Senator Amy Klobuchar regretted in retrospect that the case - as well as 29 other cases of police violence resulting in death during her service - had been handed over to the grand jury.

In 2008, during a domestic violence campaign, Chauvin shot 21-year-old African American Ira Latrell Toles twice in the abdomen for attempting to reach for Chauvin's gun. Toles denies this and stated in an interview that Chauvin brutally attacked him in the bathroom. In a settlement, Toles pleaded guilty to domestic violence in a "misdemeanor" case, whereupon prosecutors dropped charges of resistance. For use Chauvin was later the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor awarded . In 2008 and 2009, he received commendations for pursuing suspects. In 2011, during an operation in which Chauvin was involved, one of his colleagues fired a shot at Native American Leroy Martinez, who was wounded as a result. Police said he had aimed a gun at the officers, but several witnesses and Martinez himself disagreed with this account.

Derek Chauvin and the slain George Floyd had worked in overlapping shifts as security for the same nightclub before the fatal arrest . It is unclear whether they knew each other. Chauvin acted as a trainer ("training officer") for the officer who was also involved in the operation, James Kueng. After George Floyd's death, Chauvin's Asian-born wife, Kellie Chauvin, filed for divorce, requesting a name change.

Derek Chauvin and his wife were charged with various tax offenses in July 2020 after the killing of George Floyd. The public prosecutor's office accuses them of deliberately filling out income tax returns incorrectly, not filing them at all and evading taxes over a period of several years from 2014 onwards. The municipality was damaged as a result. The couple also did not pay sales tax after selling a vehicle. The trial for these offenses is not expected to begin before June 30, 2021.

Tou Thao, 34, began his career in 2008 as a Community Service Officer , a kind of administrative assistant whose job is to support police officers . In 2009, Thao graduated from the Police Academy and started working as a police officer in 2012 after a two-year hiatus. Six complaints were made against Tou Thao during his tenure. However, none of these were considered to be well founded. In 2014, a man sued the police department, alleging that Thao handcuffed him, pinned him to the ground, and abused him for no reason. Thao justified the arrest with a pending arrest warrant . The two parties reached a settlement that included paying $ 25,000. The ancestors of Thao come from Laos and belong to the Hmong ethnic group .

Thomas Kiernan Lane , 37, comes from a family of police officers, studied criminology and married in 2018. Lane initially worked as a guard in a juvenile detention center. He then completed his training as a police officer in the same class as James Kueng and completed it with him in August 2019. In his spare time he worked as a volunteer tutor for Somali school children. On the day Floyd died, Lane was on his fourth shift as a patrol officer. There had been no complaints against him before.

James Alexander Kueng , 26, is the son of a nurse and a math teacher. Kueng earned a bachelor's degree in legal sociology and criminology in 2018 and worked as a security guard . In February 2019, he began training with the Minneapolis Police Department and completed it in August of the same year. On the day Floyd died, Kueng was on his third shift as a patrol officer. There had been no complaints about him before. Kueng is African American .

context

The Minneapolis Police Department, to which all four suspects belonged, has received repeated criticism following cases of police violence. In 2015, a police officer shot and killed the unarmed African American Jamar Clark without any legal consequences for the officer. In 2016, the African American Philando Castile was shot dead at a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota . A Hispanic American officer was charged with manslaughter but was later acquitted. Because of these and other incidents (see the death of Justine Damond ), Janeé Harteau and Medaria Arradondo campaigned for reforms in police work during their respective terms as presidents of the MPD. Nonetheless, Teresa Nelson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Minnesota, stated that Minneapolis had "a long and profound history of racially biased policing." The reforms may have fallen short and came too late. An ACLU study of cases from 2012 to 2014 found that African-American citizens in Minneapolis, who make up one fifth of the population, were arrested 8.7 times as often as white citizens. Derek Chauvin is the first Minnesota white police officer to be charged in connection with the death of a black citizen.

Autopsies

Two autopsies were performed on George Floyd after his death . Both autopsies came to the conclusion that Floyd's death was caused or partly caused by the police operation. The case was therefore classified as homicide. With regard to any previous illnesses, the examinations came to different results.

Hennepin County Forensic Medicine

Hennepin County's Forensic Medicine Autopsy report found Floyd's death to be cardiovascular arrest from pressure on the neck. Forensic medicine cited pre-existing heart diseases ( coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease ) and drug intoxication as other factors that would have favored his death . The drugs methamphetamine , fentanyl and cannabis could have been detected in his body , although methamphetamine was only taken shortly before the death. Alcohol was not detected. Floyd was also infected with the coronavirus , but the forensic scientists made no connection between the infection and his death. The infection was possibly asymptomatic and had already subsided.

Forensic scientist Michael Baden

The George Floyds family commissioned the forensic physician Michael Baden, known in the USA, and his colleague Allecia M. Wilson from the University of Michigan to perform a second autopsy. The investigation concluded that Floyd's cause of death was asphyxiation. Police officer Derek Chauvin was not the only thing that led to this being kneeling on his neck. The other two police officers also contributed to this with the pressure they put on Floyd's body. Floyd had no previous illnesses. Baden added that Floyd had no underlying medical problem that caused or contributed to his death, and that the ability to speak doesn't mean someone can breathe at the same time.

Association of Coroners

The US Association of coroner , the National Association of Medical Examiners , rejected criticism back at the state autopsy. It is common practice that all findings such as previous illnesses and drug intoxication are entered on the death certificate : “Death is a complex process and often occurs with several interacting contributing causes, including physiological stress caused by physical confrontations. Therefore, the listing offers a more comprehensive statement about the cause of death. "

The association pointed out that "killing" was found on the death certificate as the cause of death. In medical investigation, killing is defined as death “at the hand of another”: “It is not synonymous with 'murder', which is a legal term. It is ultimately up to the legal system to determine how this death is criminally classified under Minnesota law. "

Scientific American

Unlike the Association of Forensic Medicine, a group of independent American medical professionals criticized the state autopsy report sharply. In a contribution to Scientific American magazine , the medical professionals said the report "inappropriately" portrayed the role of intoxicants and "overrated and perverted" Floyd's chronic medical condition. In this way, the report misunderstood "the obvious reality" that without the physical pressure of a police officer's knee, George Floyd "would not be dead today." In the indictment against Derek Chauvin, ie in a legal document, the medical expertise was further manipulated and a connection between “potential intoxicants” and Floyd's death was suggested. The legal system perpetuates "stereotypes about diseases, risk behavior and intoxication in black bodies" and discredits the victim of a violent crime. The process is a typical case of gaslighting , which exonerates the perpetrators and instead blames the victims themselves, for example because of their character or even their anatomy. The cause of death in George Floyd's case was racism - the state autopsy report and its interpretation by the judiciary had obscured this. The authors of the article joined the New York epidemiologist Justin Feldman, who called for independent doctors and coroners in the course of what he saw as an overdue police reform.

Reactions

Video and petition

Police violence protests on May 26, 2020 in Minneapolis

The 17-year-old passer-by Darnella Frazier filmed Floyd lying on the floor and the Chauvin pressing his knee on him with her smartphone from the sidewalk. On the same day, she posted the video on her Facebook page with the title “They killed him right in front of Cup Foods on 38th Street and Chicago Avenue!” And the hashtag “Police Brutality”. The video spread very quickly. Days later, recordings from other perspectives were also made public. Floyd's repeated exclamation “I can't breathe!” Brought back memories of the violent death of Eric Garner , who also died as an African American during an arrest in New York City in 2014 after uttering these words several times. The online petition “Justice for George Floyd” on change.org was signed by millions of people in just a few days. Frazier was honored with a Pulitzer Special Award in June 2021 and received a "Special Mention".

Demonstrations and riots

Riots in Minneapolis on May 28, 2020
Rally after the killing of George Floyd against racism and police violence at the US embassy in Berlin on May 30, 2020

From May 26, 2020, there were widespread demonstrations against police violence in Minneapolis. Many demonstrators carried placards with the words "I can't breathe!" And chanted these words, which since 2014 had become a slogan against racially motivated police violence. In the days that followed, there were protests in many other US cities and around the world. Sometimes they also took on violent forms. The violence was directed against police officers, (counter) demonstrators, journalists and shopkeepers who wanted to protect their shops from looting. There was also violence against the protesters, in part by means of moving cars and firearms. Several people were killed. Then were in 25 cities, including Nashville , Los Angeles , Chicago and Philadelphia , curfews imposed, as well as in Minnesota and Washington, DC , the National Guard activated. Governor Tim Walz declared a state of emergency for Minneapolis and surrounding areas on May 28, 2020 .

Police officers prevented journalists from doing their work in several places and arrested some of them - including. a CNN reporter during a live broadcast. In other cases, media representatives were the target of direct coercion , including a correspondent for Deutsche Welle . Reporters Without Borders criticized the fact that the free work of the press was disrupted by both police and violent demonstrators.

Numerous participants in the nationwide protests reported attacks by the emergency services. Amnesty International documented "multiple and serious human rights violations against protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement, rescue personnel, media workers and legal observers" by the police in the USA for May and June 2020. On the other hand, expressions of solidarity with the protests by police officers became known across the country. Protesters positioned themselves in front of shops to protect them from looting. Former US President Barack Obama stressed that the vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful and called on them to democratically make their anger heard.

The protests took place during the global COVID-19 pandemic . Experts, US state governors and others warned of further spread of the virus through the mass gatherings. A later examination of the number of infections and the locations with protests could not establish a statistical connection.

politics

One day after the operation, on May 26, 2020, the four police officers involved in the incident were released. In a televised address, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated, “Being black in America shouldn't be a death sentence. What we saw is horrible, utterly and utterly depraved. ”Frey expressed condolences to the Floyds family and the African American community and expressed his incomprehension that the chief suspect, Derek Chauvin, was still at large. On May 27, 2020, Frey urged the Hennepin County District Attorney to arrest Derek Chauvin and bring charges against him.

A protesting man holding a "Justice or Violence, You Decide" sign

The US vice-president Mike Pence of the Republican Party spoke for the family of Floyd a prayer and condemned the police action, saying: "We do not tolerate any of racism -inspired violence" ( "We have no tolerance for violence inspired by racism"). The presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden on the Democratic Party ruled that the events "the open wound of systemic racism" ( "the open wound of systemic racism") have made visible in the US. Michelle Bachelet , the UN Commissioner for Human Rights , said she was “dismayed” that Floyd's name should be added to a long list of black Americans killed by police. The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote on the short message service Twitter that peaceful protests after the death of George Floyd "are understandable and more than legitimate". Peaceful protest must always be allowed.

In several cities or states, including the city of Minneapolis and the states of California and New York, reforms have been initiated, laws passed or draft laws introduced to prohibit, limit or remove the use of stranglehold from police training. Nine of the twelve members of the Minneapolis city council said they would support the dissolution of the city's police force.

Lawyer for the bereaved

George Floyd's family hired the well-known civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump to exercise their rights. Crump also represented or represents the families of Trayvon Martin , Michael Brown , Tamir Rice , Stephon Clark , Breonna Taylor , Ahmaud Arbery, and other African Americans, all of whom were shot by white police officers. After the autopsy reports were published, Crump stated that George Floyd had been "tortured to death." He struggled for air like a fish out of water. Crump placed the repeated police violence against Afro-American citizens in a wider social context that dates back to the time of slavery: “Many people still believe that black and brown people are worth less than white people. We have to counter such convictions if we ever want to overcome them. "This goal is still a long way off:" We have two judicial systems in the USA, one for black America and one for white America. "

Lawyers for the suspects

Earl Gray and Thomas Plunkett, the defense lawyers for the two suspects James Kueng and Thomas Lane, emphasized in an initial court hearing that their clients had only been police officers for the fourth day at the time of the crime. They were subordinate to their instructor Derek Chauvin, who could look back on a 19-year police career, and should have addressed him as " Sir ". In addition, they would have questioned his approach. Gray also stated that Floyd's skin color hadn't played a role in the event, pointing out that one of the police officers involved in the arrest was black and another was of Asian descent. He also mentioned that Floyd resisted being handcuffed .

Catholic Church

Pope Francis named George Floyd during his Angelus prayer . He described Floyd's death as tragic, the following events as disturbing and racism as intolerable. The Bishop of El Paso, Mark Seitz , and other clergymen knelt in public for 8 minutes and 46 seconds while holding a sign that read Black Lives Matter . In a telephone conversation he was praised for this action by Pope Francis.

Professional sport

There were also statements against racism in the German Bundesliga in the form of t-shirts and gestures by Achraf Hakimi , Weston McKennie , Jadon Sancho , Marcus Thuram , Anthony Modeste , Tyler Adams , Kingsley Coman and Alphonso Davies .

Fundraising

After George Floyd's death, two of his siblings started fundraising on the GoFundMe platform . The money will be used to cover the family's travel expenses to the funeral, legal expenses, and maintenance of Floyd's children. The target of 1.5 million dollars was exceeded within a short period of time and a total of 13.7 million dollars was reached. Around 493,000 people donated.

Conspiracy theory

On June 21, 2020, co-founder of rock group Pink Floyd and front man of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign , Roger Waters spread an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Israel was partly responsible for the violent death of George Floyd. The US regularly flew in experts from Israel to teach police officers how to kill black people efficiently, Waters claimed. America's "militarized police" have learned their deadly practices, namely the airprinting by kneeling on the victim, from the Israeli army, where this is practiced against the Palestinians.

Prosecution

Arrests, charges and bail releases

Police officer Derek Chauvin, who was kneeling on George Floyd's neck, was arrested by officers from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on May 29, 2020 and charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter that same day . On June 3, 2020, the charges of second degree murder were aggravated. In addition, the other three police officers involved in the operation (Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, James Kueng) were arrested and charged with aiding and abetting.

Lane was released from custody on June 10, 2020 on bail of $ 750,000. Kueng was released on June 19, 2020, and Thao was released on July 4, 2020 on bail of the same amount.

On October 7, 2020, Chauvin was released on bail for $ 1 million. The judge responsible had previously set further conditions for Chauvin's temporary release from prison: If he was released, he was not allowed to leave the state of Minnesota, had no contact with the Floyd family and had to hand over firearms in his possession.

First hearing

James Kueng's defense attorney, after consulting with the lawyers of the other accused police officers, requested that the pre-trial hearings be broadcast by the media. This is necessary in order to ensure the publicity of the proceedings in view of the corona pandemic , which is a prerequisite for a fair negotiation. Judge Peter Cahill rejected the application, however, because it was not supported by all parties to the litigation as necessary and could also make the selection of jurors more difficult.

The first pre-trial hearing on June 29, 2020 was largely about public comments from government officials on the case. Tou Thao's attorney criticized the fact that comments on the case of US President Donald Trump , Minnesota Governor Tim Walz , Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and representatives of the City of Minneapolis represent a prejudice of his client and thereby his right to a fair one Would violate the process. Judge Peter Cahill spoke out against state representatives commenting on the guilt or innocence of the accused, possible evidence and the chances of success of a conviction. Cahill also called on the prosecution and defense to ensure that no one in their sphere of influence makes inappropriate comments in the future. He also warned that further public comments could lead to a change of jurisdiction. Furthermore, Cahill stated that he wanted to openly examine a media transmission of the main hearing and asked the litigants to comment on this. The public prosecutor's office initially refuses to transfer the process.

The lawyers for the two newcomers to the police force, Kueng and Lane, said at the hearing that their clients had tried to get Derek Chauvin to stop kneeling on George Floyd's neck. Kueng's lawyer also stated that his client himself had used justified and proportionate force against George Floyd and that he would therefore plead not guilty. Derek Chauvin's defense attorney announced that he would request a change of jurisdiction if civil servants should continue to publicly assess the case. Judge Peter Cahill set a new hearing date for September 11, 2020 and the expected start of the trial on March 8, 2021.

Requests

On July 7, 2020, the defense attorney for Thomas Lane applied for the proceedings against his client to be discontinued, as there was no sufficient suspicion against him. The reason he cited was that Lane had tried twice to convince his colleague Chauvin to turn George Floyd on his side. In addition, Lane followed the paramedics who arrived later and Floyd into the ambulance to help with resuscitation measures.

The responsible judge, Peter Cahill, issued a gag order on July 9, 2020, prohibiting those involved in the process from discussing the case in public. The lawyers of the accused police officers requested that the blackout be lifted shortly afterwards because it would violate their clients' rights to free speech and a fair trial. They pointed out that the media and politicians had prejudiced their clients against which they could not defend themselves if there was a news blackout. Judge Cahill lifted the message block on July 21, 2020, but urged the parties involved to observe the existing regulations for the publication of process documents. Cahill simultaneously denied two defense attorneys' motion to prosecute Attorney General Keith Ellison for breaking the blackout because he had previously announced that additional prosecutors would be working on the case.

Main proceedings against chauvin

The selection of the jury jury for the main trial against Derek Chauvin should begin on March 8, 2021 . On the first day of the trial, however, only procedural issues were discussed. An appeals court had ruled a few days earlier that Judge Cahill should also allow an indictment of third degree murder. The start of jury selection has therefore been postponed by one day. Jury candidates were asked , among other things, their opinion on the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements and whether they took part in protest marches after the killing of George Floyd. Candidates should also indicate the number of times they watched the video showing the police operation.

The selection of the twelve anonymous jurors and two substitute candidates ended in time on March 23, 2021. Six white and four black jurors as well as two people who identified themselves as multiethnic were selected .

On March 29, 2021, the indictment began with the questioning of witnesses and experts. Of about 400 people who were on a list of possible witnesses, 38 were asked to testify. Several passers-by and eyewitnesses who had videotaped Floyd's arrest were interviewed, including Darnella Frazier, who was 17 at the time. An employee of the “Cup Foods” grocery store, several doctors, paramedics and police officers also had their say. Floyd's friend, Courteney Ross, reported her and Floyd's addiction to pain medication , including opioids , both of which were triggered by chronic pain. The President of the Minneapolis Police Department, Medaria Arradondo, testified that Chauvin violated the policies of his agency's policing "at various stages" of the operation. He did not de-escalate the situation when it was still possible. From April 13, 2021, the defense interviewed one of the two people who sat in the car with Floyd, police officers and medical professionals, among others. Retired pathologist David Fowler spoke out in favor of classifying Floyd's cause of death as "undetermined". In his opinion, Floyd had "a sudden arrhythmia due to his atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease "; The proven drugs and possibly vehicle exhaust fumes also contributed to his death. Fowler made a similar statement in 2018 in the case of the black college student Anton Black, who was killed after an operation by white police officers. Fowler attributed the teen's death to heart problems. The Blacks family filed a lawsuit against Fowler based on the statement. The American Civil Liberties Union accused Fowler of " spreading false narratives about what kills black people in police encounters."

On April 19, 2021, the prosecution and defense made their pleadings . According to Attorney Steve Schleicher, Chauvin was directly responsible for Floyd's death. Chauvin assaulted him when he pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for nine and a half minutes, killing him. "It was unnecessary, it was unjustified, it was disproportionate, and he did it on purpose." The killing of Floyd was not "police work, but manslaughter" ("wasn't policing, this was murder"). Chauvin's defense attorney Eric Nelson said in his plea that prosecutors had not proven Chauvin's guilt beyond any doubt. There could also be no crime because Chauvin's actions were justified use of force in the context of a “dynamic” police operation. Nelson pointed to Floyd's pre-existing health and drug residues in his blood that would have played a crucial role in his death. It is also not uncommon for suspects to fake a medical emergency to avoid arrest.

On April 20, 2021, Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts after the jury deliberated for only a few hours. The three counts were second-degree unintentional murder (in German criminal law about bodily harm resulting in death ), third degree murder and second degree manslaughter (about negligent homicide ). The maximum sentence in the individual points is 40 years, 25 years and 10 years. In Minnesota, individual counts do not typically add penalties.

On May 4, 2021, the defense requested that the proceedings be reopened. As justification, attorney Eric Nelson cited legal errors and misconduct by the court, prosecutor and jury. On June 2, 2021, the defense demanded a suspended sentence for Chauvin. On June 25, 2021, Judge Peter Cahill set the sentence to 22 years and six months. Chauvin has the option of calling .

Further procedures

The three other police officers involved in the operation, Tou Thao, James Kueng and Thomas Lane, are each charged with assisting manslaughter in a serious case (aiding and abetting second-degree murder) and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. accused. The trial against the three men was originally scheduled to begin on August 23, 2021, but was then postponed to March 2022.

The four police officers involved in George Floyd's death were also indicted at the federal level in May 2021. The four men are charged with violating Floyd's constitutional civil rights. On the federal grand jury's first count, Chauvin is accused of violating Floyd's right not to suffer “disproportionate police force”. In the second count, ex-officers Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng are accused of failing to stop Chauvin. On the third count, all four men are charged with failing to give first aid to the unconscious Floyd. The date for the procedure has not yet been set.

Another federal charge was brought against Chauvin. He is accused of holding a 14-year-old black teenager, who was handcuffed on his stomach, with his knee for 17 minutes in 2017. He is said to have hit the boy repeatedly on the head with a flashlight. The boy's wounds had to be stitched.

Civil proceedings

George Floyd's family filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four officers involved in the police operation on July 15, 2020 . The complaint states that the police officers involved violated the constitutional rights of George Floyd and that the city induced its officials to act without fear of criminal prosecution. In particular, kneeling on a suspect's neck when arrested is unconstitutional. The city has allowed a culture of excessive violence and racism to seize its security forces. According to Ben Crump, the family's lawyer, the aim of the lawsuit is to make it unaffordable for the city to kill members of marginalized groups by paying high compensation . In addition, she is striving to appoint a representative who is to monitor in the future that the police officers of the city receive sufficient training.

The city of Minneapolis has reached a settlement of $ 27 million with the George Floyds family based on a unanimous decision of the city council on March 12, 2021.

See also

Web links

Commons : Reactions to the Killing of George Floyd  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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Coordinates: 44 ° 56 ′ 3.5 ″  N , 93 ° 15 ′ 44.7 ″  W.