Derek Chauvin, ex-policeman convicted of George Floyd’s murder, appeals

Former US policeman Derek Chauvin appealed to the sentence of twenty-two and a half years in prison pronounced against him for the murder of African-American George Floyd in 2020, according to court documents unveiled Thursday, September 23. Mr. Chauvin appealed on appeal fourteen points of his conviction, pronounced June 25 by the justice of Minnesota. He complains in particular that the judge did not order the solitary confinement of the jurors for the duration of the trial.

His conviction was greeted with a great sigh of relief in the country, which could have flared up again if the ex-police officer emerged free from the hearings. Before Mr. Chauvin, only a dozen American police officers were sentenced to prison for murders committed in the line of duty.

Other officers tried in March 2022

On May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, Mr. Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer, wanted to arrest George Floyd, 46, on suspicion of having used a fake $ 20 bill to buy cigarettes. With three colleagues, he had pinned him to the ground, before kneeling on his neck.

The policeman had maintained his pressure for nearly ten minutes, indifferent to Mr. Floyd’s groans as well as the pleas of distraught passers-by, even once the pulse of the forty-something had become undetectable. The scene, filmed and uploaded by a witness, quickly went viral and sparked large-scale protests against racism and police violence in the United States and around the world.

Mr. Chauvin has always assured to have followed the procedures in force in the police force to control a recalcitrant suspect. His three former colleagues, Tou Thao, Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, are to be tried in March 2022 for “Complicity in murder” also by the justice of Minnesota.

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