George Floyd’s killer has pleaded not guilty in federal court

The policeman convicted of the murder of African-American George Floyd will be able to admit his guilt for the first time on Wednesday, December 13, in a case that has provoked the biggest anti-racist protests in the United States in recent decades.

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Derek Chavez was sentenced by a Minnesota judge on June 22 and one and a half years in prison in May 2020 for kneeling for nearly ten minutes on the neck of a black forty-year-old man in Minneapolis. In September, the 45-year-old white man pleaded not guilty at the start of new proceedings, this time prosecuting himself in federal courts.Violation of constitutional rights»De George Floyd.

Penal negotiation procedure

However, he abandoned this strategy and will have to appear again Wednesday morning before a federal judge to begin a sentencing negotiation process to avoid a new trial.Notice”Entered his judicial file on Monday. It does not specify whether he will admit guilt or choose an intermediate route of accepting punishment without duly acknowledging his responsibilities. The possibility of him pleading guilty, although he pleaded not guilty, was raised in the local press last spring.

At the end of his trial, he aroused speculation by telling the Floyd family: “Hope there will be new information in the future, which will be interesting and give you peace of mind.“.The”DoublingCases are allowed in the United States, but are relatively rare, and reflect the importance of this case at the center of the massive protests against racism and police violence across the United States by the summer of 2020.