RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/derek-chauvin-convicted-but-what-comes-next/

“Nevertheless, there is a serious question about whether Derek Chauvin got a fair trial. That is a separate question from whether the evidence was compelling. And to be sure, the stronger the evidence, the harder it is to show that due process was denied. A reviewing court is apt to conclude that even exemplary due process would not have made a difference.”

While the guilty verdicts are rational and defensible, the speedy nature of the decision could lead to problems for prosecutors in the appellate process.

D erek Chauvin has been convicted on all three counts.

For those who’ve watched the Chauvin trial, the only quick verdict that seemed rationally possible was a verdict of guilty. While I’ve been more skeptical than most commentators about the intent proof on the two murder counts (felony murder and depraved-indifference homicide), I thought the evidence on the manslaughter count — “culpable negligence,” for which it is unnecessary for prosecutors to prove criminal intent — was daunting.

Consequently, if we are sticking just to the testimony in the trial, it would be implausible — I’m tempted to say, impossible — that a rapid acquittal could have been defended as rational.

As things have turned out, the jury deliberated for less than a day. As this is written, the reporting indicates that the jury submitted no notes to the court to ask questions about the record, to request to hear any testimony reread, to seek any finer-point guidance on the law that controls the case. (I am hedging about the reporting because some matters in the case, particularly those involving the jury, have not been public.)

Word that the jury had so quickly reached a verdict signaled that Chauvin would be convicted.

The logic of the quick verdict is defensible. If the jury started with the felony-murder charge, Count One, they would have needed to find that Chauvin’s restraint and subdual of George Floyd evolved into a criminal assault. To convert what began as a lawful detention into a criminal assault, the jury would have focused on the fact that, for several minutes after Floyd had stopped breathing and lost his pulse, Chauvin maintained the back-and-neck hold — even for a minute after the ambulance arrived.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/04/there_will_be_no_riots_protesting_the_shooting_of_7yearold_jaslyn_adams.html

The shooting death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in a Chicago alley is a horrible heartbreak, but what about the death of 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams?  Adam Toledo’s death has sparked protests and riots in Chicago and all over the country, but I suspect Jaslyn’s will be just another statistic.

Madeline Kenney, Jermaine Nolen, and Cindy Hernandez of the Chicago Sun-Times report:

A 7-year-old girl was killed and her father was seriously wounded in a shooting Sunday afternoon as they were getting food at a McDonald’s drive-thru in the Homan Square neighborhood.

The father, Jontae Adams, 28, and his daughter, Jaslyn, were in a silver Infiniti about 4:20 p.m. at the McDonald’s, 3200 W. Roosevelt Road, when they were shot, Chicago police said. A McDonald’s employee, who asked not to be named, said two people got out of a gray car and started shooting at the victim’s car. (snip)

Police said the shooting was believed to be gang-related, and less than three hours later, two people were shot in their car at a Popeyes in Humboldt Park, which investigators believe is connected to the McDonald’s shooting.

There is no police body cam video of Jaslyn’s death, of course, because it was gangbangers who likely killed her as collateral damage.  Gangs are killing hundreds of people in Chicago each year.  The latest figure (from April 14) I can find for shootings in Chicago (the overwhelming number of which are gang-related) is 864 people so far this year, 218 more than last year.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/chauvin-found-guilty-on-all-charges-in-george-floyd-trial/

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of all charges on Tuesday in the killing of African American resident George Floyd during his arrest in May 2020.

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Jury deliberations lasted just over ten hours, making for a relatively speedy verdict. The jury members were kept anonymous during the trial to protect their safety.

The charge of second-degree murder carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison, while third-degree murder carries up to 25 years in prison and second-degree manslaughter up to ten years in prison. Chauvin was remanded into custody of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office with bail revoked.

Sentencing will occur in roughly two months, according to the judge in the case.

Media and demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse in the hour before the verdict was proclaimed. Demonstrators also converged outside the convenience store where Floyd was arrested, with local media reporting elation among the crowds.

Video of Floyd’s arrest went viral last year, sparking riots in cities across the country and resulting in Chauvin’s dismissal from the Minneapolis police department. The video showed Chauvin using his knee to pin Floyd to the ground for more than nine minutes, persisting even after Floyd lost consciousness.

Floyd was pronounced dead at the scene of his arrest. The trial largely focused on the degree to which Chauvin’s actions caused Floyd’s death in combination with other factors, such as a history of hypertension and Floyd’s ingestion of a fentanyl/methamphetamine combination sometime before the arrest.