On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year old Black American, who is also a hip-pop artist was arrested by police officers after a retail store put a distress call to 911 that Mr Floyd had gotten some cigarettes and had dropped a fake $20 note. Minutes later after the Minneapolis police officers arrived, Mr Floyd had already been unconscious and pinned down by three police officers. The three police officers had greatly manhandled Mr Floyd and had violated his human rights to a great extent even to the extent of death.
Approximately 24 hours after his death, the police officers who had been involved in Floyd’s death were sacked. Of all the four officers involved, Derek Chauvin seemed to have perpetrated the most violence and was charged for third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter by Mike Freeman, an attorney at Hennepin County.
The following month, more charges were laid against Derek Chauvin and his other accomplices, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were charged with second-degree murder. Derek Chauvin has been convicted but the remaining three officers have been awaiting their trial in court. Though previously slated to occur in August 2021, the trial has been adjourned till March 2022 by a judge.
The Hennepin County Judge, Peter Cahill, explained that the reason for the postponement was to allow for a federal case against the four victims to play out first. On May 25 2020, Thomas Lane and Alexander Keung were the first police officers to arrive at the retail store where George Floyd was allegedly accused of using a $20 counterfeit note to purchase some cigarettes.
Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao followed briefly after Keung and Lane had reached the scene. In the federal case, Keung and Thao have been charged for refusing to lay a restraint to prevent Chauvin from kneeling on Floyd’s neck even while he was on handcuffs for over seven minutes. Furthermore, in the federal case, the four ex police officers were charged for being deliberately indifferent to George Floyd because they did not bother to provide medical attention to Floyd even when he could not breathe.
During the hearing on the pretrial motions, Cahill explained that space was needed to clear things off before the trial is done. The person who originally pushed for the postponement isn’t known yet. However, the defence attorneys handling Keung, Lane and Thao’s case had agreed to Cahill’s decision to adjourn the trial. State prosecutors didn’t find the decision worthwhile and pushed for an August trial date. However, the decision of Peter Cahill was still to stand as he explained that his decision was based on concerns of a fair trial for the defendants.
In April, Chauvin was found guilty of all but none of the charges laid against him. These charges are second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Though Chauvin has been given a prison term by the Minnesota court, he could face a longer term as Cahill holds on to the fact that four of the exacerbating factors in Chauvin’s case have been proven beyond some degree of doubt.
