My sincerest sympathies to the Floyd family and the community that enjoyed his presence from day to day. So sorry he is gone. It isn't fair.
Third Degree Murder sounds correct in the murder of George Floyd. There is something that bothers me, though. Derek Chauvin and George Floyd knew each other and worked together as bouncers in the same nightclub.
I don't know how two men that worked with each other could have a depraved heart and/or an indifference toward the death of one or the other. That doesn't make sense to me. What gives me pause about this murder is the fact there was a personal dynamic at work between George Floyd and Derek Chauvin.
Looking at the murder at a distance, as a stranger, without knowing Chavin knew George Floyd it is rightfully Third Degree murder with a police officer on the job. However, was Chavin so disconnected from his actions as a police officer that realizing the extent George Floyd was in trouble and struggling with staying alive that it allowed Mr. Floyd to succumb to strangulation? Basically, that is what it is, strangulation. Choking.
It bothers me that these men knew each other and such violence toward George Floyd was administered to hold him to the ground. George Floyd never really gave them an argument. He was walking to the police car when he fell. Did he fall or was he forced off balance? There appeared to be a time during George Floyd's pleading for his life when Chauvin seems to adjust his knee to bring greater pressure as if to finish the job of killing George Floyd. That is a matter of perception, but, the prosecutors and investigators are going to have to sort all this out.
Third degree murder (click here) can be defined as homicide committed with the intention of causing bodily harm, but not necessarily death. It can be a killing that results from indifference or negligence or recklessness. Statutes defining third degree murder vary considerably from state to state....
Minn. Stat. § 609.195 MURDER IN THE THIRD DEGREE
(a) Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years.
(b) Whoever, without intent to cause death, proximately causes the death of a human being by, directly or indirectly, unlawfully selling, giving away, bartering, delivering, exchanging, distributing, or administering a controlled substance classified in schedule I or II, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years or to payment of a fine of not more than $40,000, or both.
It is definitely manslaughter, however, the charge of Third Degree Murder is probably more correct in this case. Manslaughter would be difficult to dismiss by any jury. It also carries a lesser sentence than Third Degree Murder.
Manslaughter is an unlawful killing that doesn’t involve malice aforethought—intent to seriously harm or kill, or extreme, reckless disregard for life. The absence of malice aforethought means that manslaughter involves less moral blame than either first or second degree murder. (But plenty argue that some instances of felony murder, a form of first degree murder, involve less blameworthiness than some instances of manslaughter.) Thus, while manslaughter is a serious crime, the punishment for it is generally less than that for murder.
In the state of Minnesota, there are 2 classifications of manslaughter: First-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter.
