Minnesota’s Court of Appeals has upheld Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the 2020 murder of George Floyd, ensuring the ex-Minneapolis cop will serve out his 22½-year sentence. Chauvin’s lawyers had made several arguments for overturning the conviction, claiming the mass protests and riots in Minneapolis in the aftermath of Floyd’s death had prevented Chauvin from receiving a fair trial. The presiding judge evidently sided with a state prosecutor, who argued that the proceedings constituted “one of the most transparent and thorough trials in our nation’s history” and stated that “the evidence of Chauvin’s guilt was captured on video for the world to see.” Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after a video of him fatally pinning Floyd’s neck to the ground for more than nine minutes led to nationwide protests against police brutality.
Read it at Associated Press
