US Supreme Court Rejects George Floyd Murder Conviction Appeal
A mural in memory of George Floyd. (Source: Lorie Shaull)
On Monday, the US Supreme Court rejected a conviction appeal presented by Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd in May 2020.
Mr. Floyd, a 45-year-old African American man, was arrested following a store clerk’s allegations that he’d used a counterfeited bill to make a purchase. After handcuffing Floyd, who lay on the ground, Chauvin knelt over his neck for over nine minutes. Other police officers looked on and kept bystanders from intervening.
During this time Floyd was heard saying repeatedly that he couldn’t breathe before passing out. Only at this point did the police officers call an ambulance, making no attempt to administer first aid themselves. George Floyd was pronounced death at the Hennepin County Medical Center emergency room.
The Minneapolis police at first described Floyd as being in “medical distress”, with no reference to Chauvin’s actions. However, the encounter was filmed, and the resulting footage widely circulated. George Floyd’s death sparked some of largest racial justice protests in the US since the Civil Rights Movement, with the Black Lives Matter movement taking centre stage.
Appeal rejected
Chauvin would be indicted, and later convicted, of second degree murder with a sentence of 21 years. It is a very rare conviction for a police officer in the United States.
While footage of the incident was instrumental to Chauvin’s conviction, it was also the basis of the appeal. His legal defense argued that he was denied the right to a fair trial, as jurors would be prejudiced against him due to pre-trial publicity.
“This was particularly true here when the jurors themselves had a vested interest in finding Mr. Chauvin guilty in order to avoid further rioting in the community in which they lived and the possible threat of physical harm to them or their families,” stated the petition. “Local media saturated the community with literally daily coverage regarding Mr. Chauvin.”
The US Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, making no comments in regard to the decision.
Chauvin was also convicted of violating Floyed’s civil rights, and received a separate sentence of 21 years. His legal counsel is in the process of appealing that conviction as well.
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