Jury Finds Derek Chauvin Guilty Amid Prayers for Peace and Justice
March 7, 2021 - Minneapolis— Thousands march the day before the start of jury selection in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. The former Minneapolis Police officer is charged with the murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020. Photo by Chad Davis/Creative Commons.
WASHINGTON— After 11 days, 38 witnesses and endless clips of the nine minutes and 29 seconds of George Floyd dying under the knee of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, the jury delivered its verdict as America collectively held its breath. Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges of murder and manslaughter on Tuesday evening.
Judge Peter Cahill is not expected to decide Chauvin’s sentencing for a few weeks, but Chauvin could face more than 12.5 years minimum in prison, according to sentencing guidelines.
"We have no pleasure in this. We don't celebrate a man going to jail," said Rev. Al Sharpton. "This gives us the energy to fight on. We will fight until we will make law the George Floyd Justice and Policing ACT."
President Joe Biden said earlier on Tuesday that he prayed for jurors to make the right decision, to convict Chauvin. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris talked to members of Floyd's family less than an hour after the verdict.
"This is a day of justice in America,” Harris told the family.
The 12 jurors filed out of the courtroom Monday evening into a private guarded room shortly and deliberated for four hours without reaching a decision. They resumed their deliberation on Tuesday morning.
Chauvin, 45, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. All three charges required the jury to conclude that Chauvin's actions were a “substantial causal factor” in Floyd's death rather than medical conditions or drug consumption and that his use of force was unreasonable. Floyd, 46, was arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit 20-dollar bill.
Minneapolis has endured nightly protests since the April 11 police shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, 20, in the suburb of Brooklyn Center, about 10 miles from the courtroom of Chauvin’s murder trial. Minnesota is bracing for more protests, enacting a state of “peace emergency” to protect protesters’ rights to peacefully assemble but deploy more resources to the area that saw widespread looting and property damage over the summer after Floyd’s death.
Ministers in Minneapolis and across the country prayed for peace regardless of what verdict would be handed down.
Before Monday’s closing arguments, Rev. Al Sharpton and members of George Floyd's family gathered in an outdoor prayer rally.
“This Thursday, I will be doing the eulogy for Daunte Wright,” said Sharpton before he prayed. “This is why this trial is so important… Whatever way this verdict goes, we won't stop until the laws change.”
Sharpton has been pushing for police reforms for years, including the Eric Garner bill signed into law last summer that criminalizes police use of strangulation. Garner died on Staten Island in 2014 after a police officer used a prohibited chokehold on him.
“Dear God, we come, we approach you from different ways of worship, we approach you believing in other religions, but we know you have all power, and we know that if we submit to your will, you will give us justice,” Sharpton prayed. “We have watched blood flow, we have suffered the pains of family, but we believe we are at a reflection point where this country most come to terms with those who feel that blue uniforms make them above the law and blue jeans make them subject to the law.”
READ: Black Churches Focus On Hope Amid COVID-19, Violence And George Floyd Trial
During the closing arguments, Minnesota prosecutor Steve Scheicher argued that the video of George Floyd’s death speaks for itself that Chauvin committed murder and police abuse. In the video, Floyd can be heard saying, “I can’t breathe.”
“[Chauvin] had the training, he knew what to do, he just didn’t do it,” Schleicer said. “He chose pride over policing... He was trying to win. He was not going to be challenged and George Floyd paid for it with his life.”
Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that the state did not present the evidence to convict Chauvin.
“No crime is committed if the police officer is using reasonable force,” Nelson said, arguing that Chauvin didn’t violate existing police procedures. The defense presented witnesses that argued Floyd had a number of medical conditions and illegal drug were found in Floyd’s body at the time of his death. “The state is trying to convince you that Mr. Floyds heart condition was not a contributor in his death,” Nelson said.
On March 6, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of the Diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis prayed for peace and justice on the eve of the trial as he gathered with more than 100 other faith leaders in downtown Minneapolis.
"Loving God, you are the source of all that is good in our lives," Hebda prayed. "And so, we come to you with grateful hearts, grateful for the gifts that you've bestowed upon those that are gathered here. Grateful for the plans that you have for our cities. Grateful for the way in which you are going to bless us beyond anything that we can imagine. We come to you today as a people who thirst for justice, but we hunger as well for peace."
Russell Pointer, Minister of the Minneapolis Central Church of Christ, told Religion Unplugged on Monday that “certainly it’s without a doubt that excessive force led to a murder in cold blood and our city is boiling over and about to erupt, because of the death of Floyd and now Daunte Wright.”
Wright visited Pointer’s church for several months, he said.
“It goes back to the fact that the police don’t value the lives of Black men, but in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a White man can walk down the street with an assault weapon and he is not considered as a threat,” Pointer said.
On April 14, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA issued a statement and a litany entitled, “How long, O Lord?”
“We bear the weight of this tragedy during the trial of Derek Chauvin,” the litany reads. “The agony of Mr. Floyd’s family is our agony; the community’s anguish is our anguish. How long, O Lord?”
The statement continues:
“NCC joins the Minnesota Council of Churches in mourning and weeping. We uphold their call for the faith community to pray for the family and friends of Daunte Wright; to stand with African American church leaders, church members, Black-led civil rights and community organizations, and courageous young activists; and to speak truth to power for police accountability, police reform bills, and system-wide transformation of policing in Minnesota.”
From Wright in Minneapolis to 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago, the fatal police shootings of two males last week, one Black and one Latino, has sparked a new level of frustration and demonstrations across the country, and many ordinary people are filled with more rage than hope even though a Democrat in the White House, President Joe Biden, is promising reforms.
Wright was stopped at a traffic light for an expired vehicle registration, and when police discovered Wright had an outstanding warrant, Wright resisted arrest. Now-former police officer Kim Potter claims she meant to fire a taser and accidentally fired her gun, killing Wright. She is charged with second-degree murder.
Chicago police were responding to shots fired. Surveillance footage shows Toledo, who was Latino, next to 21-year-old Reuben Roman who shot at passing vehicles. When officers arrived, Toledo and Roman fled into an alley, where Roman was tackled to the ground. Video released by police shows Toledo ran with a gun, while police yell at him to stop. It appears in the video that Toledo tossed the gun over a fence immediately before police officer Eric Stillman shot him.
Joining Sharpton for prayer was attorney Ben Crump, Rev. Jesse Jackson, members of the Congressional Black Caucus and members of the Floyd family.
In response to the shooting of Wright, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn issued a statement:
“Even as the trial of the officer who killed George Floyd continues just 12 miles away from where Mr. Wright was killed, it is evident that the system of policing in this country is fundamentally flawed. LDF will continue to push for the structural changes necessary to ensure accountability for officers who engage in misconduct or killing.”
Senior contributor Hamil Harris is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland College Park and has been a lecturer at Morgan State University. Harris is minister at the Glenarden Church of Christ and a police chaplain. A longtime reporter at The Washington Post, Harris was on the team of Post reporters that published the series “Being a Black Man.” He also was the reporter on the video project that accompanied the series that won two Emmy Awards, the Casey Medal and the Peabody Award. In addition to writing for ReligionUnplugged, Harris contributes to outlets such as The Washington Post, USA Today, The Christian Chronicle and the Washington Informer.