George Floyd’s murderer waives not guilty plea
In September, Derek Chauvin had pleaded not guilty in federal justice which, this time, pursues him for “violation of the constitutional rights” of George Floyd.
Derek Chauvin listens to the verdict in his trial in Minneapolis on April 20, 2021.
AFP
The policeman convicted of the murder of African American George Floyd could admit, for the first time, his wrongs on Wednesday in the case which sparked the biggest anti-racist protests in decades in the United States.
Derek Chauvin was sentenced in June by the Minnesota justice to 22 and a half years in prison for kneeling for nearly ten minutes on the neck of the black forty-something, in May 2020 in Minneapolis. In September, the 45-year-old white man pleaded not guilty at the start of new proceedings, this time in federal courts, suing him for “violation of the constitutional rights” of George Floyd.
«Notification»
However, he renounced this strategy and must appear again Wednesday morning before a federal judge to presumably begin a sentence negotiation procedure intended to avoid him a new trial, according to a “notification” entered Monday in his judicial file. This does not specify whether he will plead guilty or opt for an intermediate route which consists in accepting a conviction without formally acknowledging his responsibilities.
The possibility that he would plead guilty, although he never admitted any wrongdoing, was raised in the local press last spring. At the end of his trial, he had 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.”
“Double” prosecutions 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 the summer of 2020.
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