I was writing something else when the verdict came. It’s a huge relief. Never was there such a slam-dunk case, but it only takes one moron to hang a jury.
It’s too soon, I suppose, to declare that some kind of corner has been turned. Still, we can hope that this trial and conviction — on national television — will be a watershed moment, like the Army-McCarthy hearings, that impacts everything to come. Let us hope the very righteous conviction of Derek Chauvin is not an aberration.
I'm relieved the jury delivered the verdict supported by the evidence . Here's to hoping the sentence, that unfortunately that won't come for another eight weeks, is in line with the verdict.
Coincidentally, earlier today, a judge ruled against throwing out the sentence of former cop Michael Slager, convicted of murder after shooting Walter Scott in the back five times over a broken taillight. His attempt to frame Scott and lie about what happened didn't work when unbeknownst to him a bystander had caught the whole thing on camera.
So today was a bad day for bad cops, and a good day, finally, for justice. I hope this is the beginning of the end of cops getting away with murder.
This is good news. It seems like it's been forever since our justice system really delivered justice.
Well, they reached the right verdict. One thing that stood out for me was when the prosecution presented their closing arguments, and one of the charges against Chauvin used the word indifference in describing the offence. The prosecutor told the jury what indifference was by showing a body cam video of Chauvin reaching over to pluck out a piece of gravel from the tire treads on the police vehicle while still engaged in snuffing out George Floyd's life as he begged for oxygen. Wow! Not that the indifference wasn't apparent from other videos taken of Chauvin, but that particular video conveyed a kind of ho-hum waiting for the paint to dry quality about it.