Derek Chauvin back in court

Police officer Derek Chauvin, sentenced in June for the murder of George Floyd, finds himself again Tuesday before a judge, federal this time, in the company of three other agents involved in the tragedy which has upset the United States.

Derek Chauvin, 45, could take the opportunity to plead guilty and recognize, for the first time, his responsibility in the death of the black forty-something, on whose neck he had remained kneeling for nearly ten minutes in May 2020 in Minneapolis.

He is already serving a sentence of 22 and a half years in prison handed down after an extraordinary trial in the State of Minnesota.

During the hearings, his lawyer hammered out that he had contented himself with following the procedures in force in the police force and that the death of George Floyd was due to health problems combined with the ingestion of drugs, without convincing the jurors .

His three former colleagues, Tou Thao, Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, are to be tried in March for “complicity in murder” also by the justice of Minnesota.

In parallel, the four men were indicted by the federal justice for “violation of the constitutional rights” of George Floyd.

These “double” prosecutions are permitted in the United States, but relatively rare, and reflect the importance of this case at the heart of protests against racism and police violence across the United States.

It is in this component that they will be presented Tuesday, by video, to a federal judge. The magistrate will read the indictment and the four men are expected to say whether or not they plead guilty.

According to the local press, Derek Chauvin has been negotiating a guilty plea agreement for several weeks which would prevent him from a new trial. At the end of the first, he had offered his condolences to the Floyd family and hinted at this option: “there will be new information in the future, which I hope will be interesting and which will bring you peace of mind. spirit “.

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