White policeman Derek Chauvin, already convicted of the murder of George Floyd, pleaded guilty Wednesday, December 15, to violating the constitutional rights of the black forty-something, during an appearance in federal court. So far, the 45-year-old former agent had never admitted any wrongdoing.
The prosecution believes that Derek Chauvin had deprived George Floyd of his rights by resting his knee on his neck while he was handcuffed and did not resist.
The arrest and death of George Floyd, which a passerby filmed on a cell phone, sparked mass protests across the United States to demand an end to racial inequality and police abuse of people. black people.
Double chases
Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder by the Minnesota justice and sentenced to twenty-two and a half years in prison after an extraordinary trial. He appealed against this conviction. In parallel, the federal justice had opened its own lawsuits by indicting him, as well as his three former colleagues, for “Violation of constitutional rights” by George Floyd.
Those “Doubles” Lawsuits are permitted in the United States but relatively rare, and reflect the importance of this case at the heart of giant protests against racism and police violence across the United States.
In this component, the police officer pleaded not guilty in September, but changed his strategy on Wednesday as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors that will prevent him from a new trial. No date has yet been set for his sentence. Federal prosecutors have called for twenty-five years in prison to be served concurrently with the sentence handed down in state courts.
The possibility that he would plead guilty in this section had been raised last spring. At the time, at the end of his trial, he fueled speculation by telling the Floyd family: “There will be new information in the future, which I hope will be interesting and which will give you peace of mind. “
The trial of the three other police officers who participated in the arrest of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 is due to open in March in a court in the state of Minnesota.