Officer pleads guilty in Floyd murder

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota－Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to violating the African-American man's civil rights－his first acknowledgment of criminal wrongdoing in the case.

Chauvin, 45, pleaded guilty in the district court in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to federal charges of using excessive force by holding his knee to Floyd's neck for nearly 10 minutes on May 25, 2020.

In a plea agreement with the Justice Department, Chauvin "admits that his willful use of unreasonable force resulted in Mr Floyd's bodily injury and death" and that he "knew that what he was doing was wrong".

"The defendant also knew there was no legal justification to continue his use of force because he was aware that Mr Floyd not only stopped resisting, but also stopped talking, stopped moving, stopped breathing, and lost consciousness and a pulse," it said.

Floyd's death, which was filmed by a bystander on a cellphone, set off months of Black Lives Matter demonstrations throughout the country over police abuse of African Americans.

Chauvin also pleaded guilty to violating the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old boy in a separate case. In the 2017 incident, Chauvin held the handcuffed boy facedown on the ground and struck him on the head multiple times with a flashlight.

"While recognizing that nothing can repair the harm caused by such acts, the Justice Department is committed to holding accountable those who violate the Constitution, and to safeguarding the civil rights of all Americans," said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement.

'I can't breathe'

Chauvin was convicted of Floyd's murder in a Minnesota state trial in June and was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison.

Under the plea agreement, he will face a sentence of between 20 and 25 years in prison on the federal charges to be served concurrently with or beyond the sentence in the state murder conviction.

This ensures that the former police officer will spend years in prison, regardless of what happens to the appeal he has filed on the state murder charge.

He will be allowed to serve his sentence in federal rather than state custody.

Chauvin had originally pleaded not guilty in the federal rights case, but changed his plea in the face of possible life imprisonment.

In May last year, Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the Minneapolis police force, was seen kneeling on Floyd's neck on video, as the 46-year-old was handcuffed and facedown on the ground saying repeatedly "I can't breathe".

That became the mantra of subsequent protests, which gained force as other unpunished cases of mistreatment or killings of black people by police came to light.

Three other former officers－Tou Thao, Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane－were at the scene of Floyd's death and will be tried separately by the state. The three also face federal civil rights charges and have pleaded not guilty.

Civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who represents Floyd's family, called the resolution of the federal case a "historic day".

"Before the tragic and needless death of George Floyd, there was little expectation that a white police officer would ever be held accountable for murdering a black man," he said.