Minneapolis jurors withdrew to deliberate on the murder of African American George Floyd. Judge Peter Cahill urged jurors not to consider the consequences of their verdict.
The only defendant is former police officer Derek Chauvin who for nine minutes and 29 seconds kept his knee pressed to Floyd’s neck.
“The knee on Floyd’s neck was not an unauthorized move,” he said, finishing his speech Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defense attorney. Floyd’s death occurred on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Outside the court, the family members of Floyd and Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old boy killed by the police, held a prayer vigil.
“We heard that George Floyd was battling drug addiction and that he was being investigated for peddling a fake twenty dollar bill, but there is no evidence that he knew that bill was fake. He is not accused here and he has not a process when he was alive. His last words were ‘please don’t breathe’ “, he had previously said Attorney Steve Schleicher during the final indictment. “This – he added – is not a trial of the police, it is the trial of a defendant. And for the good police there is nothing worse than a bad police”.
.