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A lawyer for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin made his case on Wednesday for why his client's three convictions in the murder of George Floyd should be overturned, which the state vehemently rebutted.

A former Minneapolis Police Department officer pleaded guilty Monday to state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter for his role in the death of George Floyd in 2020. Alexander Kueng entered his plea just as jury selection in the trial was set to begin. Kueng could face 3 1/2 years in prison under sentencing guidelines for the aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors had dropped an aiding and abetting second-degree murder charge that called for more than 12 years in prison, according to The Associated Press.

Kanye West continues to create outrage. The outspoken rapper contended in a new interview that George Floyd died of the drug fentanyl, and not from the actions of the Minnesota police officer who was convicted of his murder. “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” West claimed on Sunday’s episode of the Revolt TV show “Drink Champs.” West, 45, made the claim after saying he recently attended the premiere of “Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM,” a documentary by conservative commentator Candace Owens....

Derek Chauvin could not afford an attorney to appeal his convictions in the case of George Floyd. Chauvin’s insurance did not extend to appeals and the Minnesota Supreme Court denied him a public defender. Although I thought Chauvin could not have received a fair trial in Hennepin County, it looked like he wouldn’t be able to raise the issue on appeal either. I put out the call on Power Line for some member of the Minnesota bar to represent Chauvin on appeal. In the best tradition of the American legal profession, my friend Bill Mohrman answered the call. Chauvin’s legal...

Two Atlanta Police Department officers will not face charges in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks, who was killed two years ago outside a Wendy's restaurant, after a prosecutor said 'their deadly force was reasonable.' Officer Garrett Rolfe fatally shot Brooks, 27, twice in the back as he ran from cops outside the fast food store in South Atlanta in June 2020. The officers were trying to arrest him in the parking lot. Rolfe and his colleague, Officer Devin Brosnan, were initially called to the restaurant by customers who said a man was asleep at the wheel, blocking the drive-through....

Thomas Lane, one of the three former Minneapolis police officers convicted in February of violating George Floyd’s civil rights, was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison on Thursday. Federal prosecutors had asked Judge Paul A. Magnuson to sentence Lane to between 5.25 years to 6.5 years for his role in the fatal restraint of Floyd on a Minneapolis street in May 2020. Earl Gray, Lane’s attorney, asked for a sentence of 2.25 years. Former officers Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng faced state and federal charges for their actions – or lack thereof – in May 2020 as...

At least 20 police officers were injured on Sunday in southern India while trying to prevent a mob from burning school buses after a female student committed suicide, local media reported. Protesters forcibly entered the school campus in Kallakurichi district in southern Tamil Nadu state and set school buses and police vehicles on fire as they demanded justice over the student's death, The Times of India newspaper reported on its website. The teenager was found dead in the hostel of the private school on Wednesday. She allegedly left a suicide note naming two teachers She said that they had tortured...

Two Virginia schools which had been named after Confederate generals and soldiers and which changed their names in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd, are to revert back to their earlier names.

It’s an image of a man in thoughtful repose, looking down at the camera as he stands in front of a brick wall. In short, a selfie that seems designed not to call too much attention to itself. And yet, it’s the picture that some say may have played an important role in the fight for racial justice. This is, of course, the now iconic photo of George Floyd — arguably the most widely distributed image of the man whose May 25, 2020 murder by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin sparked a wave of protests throughout the country. The...

The two lawyers accused of throwing a Molotov Cocktail at a police car during the George Floyd riots, pleaded guilty last October and faced up to ten years in prison. Now federal prosecutors in New York are seeking a reduced sentence for the pair for some reason. The New York City Police Benevolent Association released this statement in response: “There is absolutely no justification for lowballing the sentence for an anti-police terrorist attack. It’s bad enough that these dangerous criminals have been allowed to sit at home for the past two years. Handing them a below-guidelines sentence would give a...

A grand jury in Dallas County, Texas, indicted three police officers for allegedly assaulting protesters in the wake of the George Floyd murder. The grand jury handed down multiple indictments against two Dallas Police Department officers and an officer from the Garland Police Department, WFAA ABC8 reported. The two Dallas officers were previously charged in February.

Former President Donald Trump wanted to "shoot" demonstrators protesting the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, according to a forthcoming book written by former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. In June 2020, Trump became increasingly frustrated with the fury ignited by the death of Floyd while in custody of the Minneapolis police, Esper wrote in the book, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times," which is slated for release on May 10.

In the aftermath of George Floyd's death while in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020, millions of Americans took to the streets to protest the manner in which he was killed while calling for greater attention to criminal justice reform throughout the United States. However, Trump was not keen on the protests surrounding Floyd's death, and in a phone call with governors stressed that they needed to display a show of force against the activism that was increasingly becoming a part of the national conversation, according to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd, is seeking a new trial. In an 82-page brief filed Monday, Chauvin's attorney, William Mohrman, argued that it was impossible for his client to get a fair trial in Minneapolis amid the tense climate surrounding the proceedings and the pre-trial publicity. He said the media coverage of the case "glorified Floyd and demonized Chauvin."

You all know George Floyd. Floyd was a career criminal who died under the knee of a policeman on May 25, 2020. His COD was listed as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” Although he had a lethal level of fentanyl in his blood when he died it was dismissed as a possible COD, as was his heart disease. One might be tempted to think George Floyd was the only person ever to die under the knee of a policeman (doing what he was trained to do) but one would be wrong. One might think that...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Three former Minneapolis police officers have been convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old Black man was handcuffed and facedown on the street on May 25, 2020. Thao and Lane were also charged with failing to intervene to stop Chauvin. The videotaped killing sparked protests in Minneapolis that spread around the globe as part of reckoning over racial injustice....

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A toxicologist testified Wednesday at the federal trial of three former officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights that it wasn’t drug use, heart disease nor an agitated state known as “excited delirium” that caused Floyd’s death after officers pinned him to the pavement in May 2020. Dr. Vik Bebarta, an emergency physician and toxicologist and professor at the University of Colorado in suburban Denver, bolstered the prosecution’s contention that Floyd died because of how Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee down on the Black man’s neck. Bebarta said he concluded that Floyd “died...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — George Floyd died because his breathing was restricted as he was restrained while handcuffed and facedown, a lung expert testified Monday at the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating Floyd’s civil rights. Dr. David Systrom, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said Floyd’s upper airway was compressed by Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee, while his position on the hard asphalt with his hands cuffed behind his back did not allow his lungs to expand, cutting off the flow of oxygen. “Oxygen delivered to the...

On the campaign trail in June 2020, President Joe Biden claimed that Martin Luther King Jr.’s death did not make as much of an impact as the death of George Floyd. “Even Dr. King’s assassination did not have the worldwide impact that George Floyd’s death did,” Biden said during a campaign event on June 11, 2020.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas board that had unanimously supported a posthumous pardon for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston backpedaled in an announcement Thursday, saying “procedural errors" were found in their recommendation months after leaving the decision to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.In a letter dated Dec. 16 but not released publicly until now, the board told Abbott that it had identified “unexplained departures” from its process of issuing pardons and needed to reconsider more than a third of the 67 clemency recommendations it sent to Abbott this year, including the one for Floyd.