At George Floyd Square, the makeshift memorial that has grown up in the street where Chauvin killed him, Mileesha Smith welcomed the verdicts.
“This is just the beginning. God didn’t let him die in vain. We need the change and we got it,” she said. “It’s bigger than the verdict. What we’ve been fighting for this entire time. You’re telling us that we are right.”
The convictions sent a wave of relief across large parts of a city that was badly hit by riots and looting in the days after Floyd’s death alongside peaceful protests. Hundreds of national guard troops had been deployed in preparation for an acquittal.
Chauvin, who showed little emotion as the verdicts were read, was immediately taken into custody to await sentencing. He faces up to 40 years in prison but is likely to receive a shorter sentence, according to legal guidelines.
Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, welcomed the verdicts. “I would not call today’s verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration, but it is accountability which is the first step towards justice,” he said. “This verdict reminds us that we must make enduring enduring, systemic, societal change.”
Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder for killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, a crime that prompted waves of protests in support of racial justice in the US and across the world.
The jury swiftly and unanimously convicted Chauvin of all the charges he faced – second- and third-degree murder, and manslaughter – after concluding that the white former Minneapolis police officer killed the 46-year-old Black man in May through a criminal assault, by pinning him to the ground so he could not breathe.
Huge cheers immediately went up among a crowd of several hundred people outside the heavily fortified courthouse with people chanting “All three counts” and “Whose victory? Our victory!”
“Don’t let anyone tell you protest doesn’t work,” a man told the crowd through a bullhorn.
Floyd’s brother, Philonise, was the only family member in court. He sat praying in the minutes before the verdict and was visibly shaking as it was announced. As the guilty verdicts were proclaimed, he closed his eyes and nodded his head repeatedly.
“I was just praying they would find him guilty. As an African American, we usually never get justice,” he said immediately afterwards.
Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for the Floyd family, said in a statement: “Justice for Black America is justice for all of America. This case is a turning point in American history for accountability of law enforcement and sends a clear message we hope is heard clearly in every city and every state.”
President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and Jill Biden, the first lady, called members of the Floyd family moments after the verdict, according to video posted by Crump. Biden told the family: “Nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now there is some justice.” He added: “We’re all so relieved.”
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