After being found guilty of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter for holding his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nine-and-a-half minutes, Derek Chauvin may no longer be claiming innocence to additional pending charges related to the case.
Janelle Griffith of NBC News reported that “Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, plans to change his not-guilty plea to federal charges that he violated Floyd’s civil rights.”
According to Griffith, “a filing in U.S. District Court in Minnesota indicated that Chauvin will appear at 9 a.m. Wednesday to enter a new plea. The notice did not say how he intends to change his plea. Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.”
In a case that moves beyond the murder trial for which he has already stood, Chauvin, along with the three other former officers involved (Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao), were all indicted in federal court for “depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority on May 25, 2020”. All four men originally pled not guilty to the additional charges in September 2021.
“In a separate federal indictment, Chauvin is also charged with depriving a 14-year-old boy of his civil rights during an encounter in September 2017 in which he is accused of holding the boy by the throat and striking his head multiple times with a flashlight,” Griffith added.
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