A jury on Tuesday (April 20) found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on three counts of murdering African-American man George Floyd.
Jurors convicted Chauvin of general homicide, second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder.
Jovin faces up to 75 years in prison. He declined to testify at the trial.
Jurors spent approximately eight hours and 20 minutes deliberating on the case over the last two days.
Traffic cameras showed many people driving out of downtown Minneapolis before the verdict was read, out of concern for a possible new wave of riots. However, a large crowd gathered around the Hennepin County Courthouse as the verdict was read.
Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after being subdued by Jovon and two other officers. Previously, Floyd was taken into custody for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a nearby Cup Foods food store, but he refused to be placed in the back of a patrol car by officers.
After resisting the officers’ arrest by a car outside the reported store, Floyd was pinned to the ground by Jovin and other officers to subdue him.
Jovin allegedly knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. At that point Floyd complained that he could not breathe. Eventually, he stopped breathing. He was rushed to the hospital by ambulance, but was soon pronounced dead.
Jovin, 45, joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 2001. The day after the incident, he was fired along with three other officers involved in the arrest of Floyd, 46.
The three officers, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Keung and Tou Thao, will stand trial later this year on charges of aiding and abetting murder.
Floyd’s death has sparked massive protests and riots across the United States. In Minneapolis alone, more than 1,000 buildings have been burned or damaged in the riots. Fearing the possibility of new riots, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declared a state of emergency Monday night (April 19).
During the trial, the jury heard testimony from experts invited by the prosecution who testified that Floyd died of asphyxiation or lack of oxygen.
Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonary specialist at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital and Loyola University’s medical school in Chicago, testified that Floyd died of asphyxiation or oxygen deprivation. Martin Tobin, a pulmonary specialist at Loyola University’s medical school in Chicago, said, “Even a healthy person can die if treated the way Freud treated him.”
Hennepin County Coroner Dr. Andrew Baker told the court during the trial that Floyd’s death was an intentional killing caused by cardiac arrest in the context of law enforcement.
The local coroner’s office found that, in addition to Floyd’s health history, fentanyl and methamphetamine found in the autopsy contributed to his death.
Baker said in court, “Given his underlying heart condition and his addiction to drugs, it was the stress of that interaction that caused him to pass away.”
Use-of-force experts and law enforcement officers subpoenaed by the prosecution claim that Jovon’s actions violated his training and law enforcement department policies.
Seth Stoughton, an associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, said last week, “The knee press on Mr. Floyd’s neck and the restraint restraint of laying him prone were unreasonable, excessive and contrary to generally accepted police practices.”
Defense experts expressed skepticism about the Jovian case.
Defense witness Dr. David Fowler, who previously headed the Maryland State Medical Examiner’s Office. He later told jurors that the death should have been classified as an undetermined cause of death, not murder, given Floyd’s drug use and health status.
Last week, Dr. Fowler said, “It appears to me that due to atherosclerosis and hypertensive heart disease, Mr. Floyd suffered a sudden cardiac arrhythmia while being subdued by police.” He added that the fentanyl and methamphetamine in Floyd’s system, as well as the paraganglioma he suffered from, were what led to his death.
Use of force expert Barry Brodd testified that the force used by Jovan was not lethal and that what he did at the time was justified.
Brodd said in court, “I feel that Derek Chauvin acted for cause and acted objectively and reasonably in his interaction with Mr. Floyd, following the policies and current law enforcement standards of the Minneapolis Police Department.”
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