Aryan Grover
The trial against ex-officer Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, who had been charged with the murder of George Floyd, has finally concluded.
A guilty verdict has finally been passed, after 44 witnesses on the stand and 15 days of testimony.
The evidence brought up against Chauvin has been overwhelming, however, the cell phone video shot by a girl who witnessed the event continues to be the single most accurate and vivid description of the details of Derek Chauvin’s crime.
The video shows George Floyd calling for his mother while Chauvin has him pinned to the ground, pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds.
Floyd tells Chauvin that he cannot breathe, but Chauvin does not pay any heed to his words, and continues to apply fatal force for minutes after officers could no longer feel Floyd’s pulse.
When the defence argued that George Floyd had died because of his enlarged hurt, Jerry Blackwell, the prosecutor, made a sympathetic plea and stated, “You know the truth. And the truth of the matter is, that the reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr Chauvin’s heart was too small.”
Several senior police officers of the Minneapolis police department, including the chief of police Medaria Arradondo, took a stand against Chauvin’s actions.
The proceedings in this case were vastly different from the ones that preceded it, where law enforcement officials of the US have always been protected by some flaw in the nature of the trial or the law.
The testimony in this case was damning and unprecedented.
The case sets a precedent for officers who are involved in similar fatalities that reach the trial. Any officials who are guilty of criminal use of force may face testimony even from their own former superiors.