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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Nearly a year ago George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. His death sparked a resurgence in the Black Lives Matter movement. Over the last three weeks, the world watched and waited as one of the most significant trials in recent history took place. On Wednesday, his murderer was found guilty.

Today, journalist Mary McGuire, on the trial of Derek Chauvin, the verdict, and the future of the movement against police violence.

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RUBY:

Mary, you’re a journalist from Minneapolis who has been following the trial of Derek Chauvin… and you’re there now, in Minneapolis. I’m wondering if we can start by getting a sense of what it has been like in the city over the past few days?

MARY:

I think everyone was just watching and waiting. I mean, my friends were turning on the notifications on their cell phones, making sure that they would know the second that a verdict was in. There was another police killing that happened just more than a week ago, less than a few miles away from the courthouse where this is taking place, a man named Dante Wright was killed at a traffic stop. So I think that that really added to the tension in the Minneapolis area, because you have a city that's already on edge and is already dealing with the death of a black man in the hands of police. And then it happens yet again while this court case is going on. I've been covering news in Minneapolis for a long time. I covered the trial of Orlando Castiel, another extremely publicised officer involved shooting. I also covered the case of Mohammed Nour and the killing of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who is from Australia. And I've never seen the type of outcry that came from the death of George Floyd.

RUBY:

Mm can you take me back to that incident - George Floyd’s killing - in May of last year?

MARY:

Yes. So George Floyd, he was in South Minneapolis. He stopped by a convenience store called Cup Foods and he stopped there to buy cigarettes. And he was accused of using a fake 20 dollar bill to buy cigarettes. And from there, the store clerk called the police and police claim that he was resisting arrest and he was taken into what's called the prone position, which is lying on your stomach with your hands handcuffed behind your back. And from there, he began screaming that he could not breathe, he said that he was dying. He cried out to his mom. And that moment is the one that so many of us know. It was recorded on video by a bystander, Darnella Frazier. And it was such a raw, visceral moment. And George Floyd died as a result.

Archival Tape -- Protestors, chanting

“No justice! No peace!”

MARY:

Of course, that sparked global protests across the United States

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 1

“From Washington’s newly named Black Lives Matter plaza…. To San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge…”

MARY:

It’s really the largest civil rights movement that we've seen since the 60s.

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 1

“Waves of peaceful protests marched on bigger than ever before…”

Archival Tape -- Unnamed Protestor

“No more silence!”

MARY:

The action was swift. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo fired Derek Chauvin the next day, and those calls for justice and for him to be charged with murder grew. And that happened shortly after. So Derek Chauvin was charged with second degree unintentional murder, third degree murder, and also second degree manslaughter. So really a wide range of charges.

RUBY:

Mm and so the trial itself, it went for three weeks. What were some of the defining moments?

MARY:

Yeah, so I think one of the big ones, at least for me, came from Christopher Martin.

Archival Tape -- Christopher Martin

“Ah Christopher Martin, C-H-R-I-S-T-O-P-H-E-R....”

MARY:

He was the young man who was working at Cup Foods who actually called the police on George Floyd in the first place. And we heard about his regret.

Archival Tape -- Christopher Martin

“At this point, I was just kind of emotional and I went to the African American that was standing there at the curb and I was just like: ‘They’re not going to help him. This is what we have to deal with…”

MARY:

There was a store policy at Cup Foods that said that if a clerk were to take a counterfeit bill, that if they found out it was counterfeit, then that money would be taken out of their check. And you could just feel the guilt that he felt because really it was that 911 call that tipped all of this into motion and he just felt overridden with guilt.

Archival Tape -- Unnamed Prosecutor

“We saw you standing there with your hands on your head for a while, correct?”

Archival Tape -- Christopher Martin

“Correct”

Archival Tape -- Unnamed Prosecutor

“What was going through your head at that time period?”

Archival Tape -- Christopher Martin

“Disbelief and guilt.”

Archival Tape -- Unnamed Prosecutor

“Why guilt?”

Archival Tape -- Christopher Martin

“If I would’ve just not taken the bill, this could’ve been avoided.”

MARY:

I think having the rank and file at a police department come out and say that what Chauvin did was totally wrong and completely admonishing it, was- was very powerful.

Archival Tape -- Unnamed Prosecutor

“Now sir, based upon your review of all of the information you’ve just mentioned, do you believe that the defendant followed departmental policy 5-304 regarding deescalation?”

Archival Tape -- Chief Medaria Arradondo

“I absolutely do not agree with that.”

MARY:

And Chief Medaria Arradondo, he's- he was very measured in his testimony. Police Chiefs traditionally don't testify in cases like this. So I think it was very significant for the jury to hear from him.

Archival Tape -- Chief Moondarra Arredondo

“And when we talk about the framework of our sanctity of life and when we talk about the principals and values we have - that action goes contrary to what we’re taught…”

MARY:

And the defence, their main argument, the argument of attorney Eric Nelson, was really to raise doubts about George Floyds cause of death.

Archival Tape -- Eric Nelson

“So in your opinion both the heart disease as well as the history of hypertension and the drugs that were in his system played a role in Mr Floyd’s death?”

Archival Tape -- Unnamed Witness

“In my opinion, yes.”

MARY:

The closing statements, they were extremely long. They lasted for nearly five and a half hours. And really the line that I took away from all of it was that;

Archival Tape -- Unnamed Prosecutor

“You were told for example that Mr Floyd died because his heart was too big… And now having seen all the evidence, heard all the evidence - you know the truth. And the truth of the matter is the reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr. Chauvin’s heart was too small.”

MARY:

And then once we found out that a jury-the jury had reached a verdict, people started flocking to downtown Minneapolis, really kind of a centre of commerce in the city.

Archival Tape -- Protestors chanting

(Unintelligible)

MARY:

That's where the courthouses and people were watching on their phones. They were streaming the live stream of the verdict, really just watching with bated breath. There was so much anxiety in the air.

Archival Tape -- Protestors chanting

“Shut it down… Shut it down!”

MARY:

And then every every major broadcast network, every cable news network, ESPN, every radio station, every single TV station that you can imagine broke into regular programming on Tuesday for live coverage of the verdict.

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 1

“A jury in Minneapolis has found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty.”

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 2

“So there you have it, in less than 10 minutes, guilty on all three counts.”

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 3

“Guilty on second degree murder, third degree murder and manslaughter.”

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 4

“Justice has been served. And you can see the reaction from the crowd, how America feels.”

MARY:

The jury did find the former police officer, Derrick Chauvin, guilty on all charges.
And the crowd outside of the government centre in downtown Minneapolis really erupted in applause.

Archival Tape -- Protestors, applauding and cheering

MARY:

There was a lot of tears. Just a lot of sighs of relief outside of the courthouse.

Archival Tape -- Protestor

“Derek Chauvin has been found guilty!”

Archival Tape -- Protestors, cheering

“Say his name! George Floyd!”

RUBY:

We’ll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Mary, you’ve been describing the reaction on the ground in Minneapolis to the verdict, but can you tell me about what the response has been more broadly across the United States?

MARY:

Of course. I think that this- this case has been unprecedented on so many levels. And one of the ways that I've seen that kind of play out is the response from national figures across the country.

Archival Tape -- President Joe Biden

“Today, a jury in Minnesota found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts…”

MARY:

I think I've never heard really a president weigh in on a verdict and a court case like this, But President Joe Biden, he praised the guilty verdict

Archival Tape -- President Joe Biden

“It was a murder in the full light of day and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see, the systemic racism…”

MARY:

And he said that it was too rare to deliver basic accountability for black Americans, so many black Americans who have been killed with interactions with police.

Archival Tape -- President Joe Biden

“The knee of the neck of justice for black Americans. Profound fear and trauma. The pain and exhaustion that black and brown Americans experience every single day.”

MARY:

He also called the Floyd family after that verdict was rendered. He's been in touch with the Floyd family throughout this, and he told them that the evidence against Chauvin was overwhelming. We also saw figures who have been prominent in the civil rights community here in America speak out.

Archival Tape -- Al Sharpton

“And this is an assurance to them that if we don’t give up that we can win some rounds. But the war and the fight is not over.”

MARY:

Al Sharpton was in town, also the Reverend Jesse Jackson and of course, Benjamin Crump, who is the Floyd family attorney. You just had so many people from so many different realms of society weighing in on this. I mean, sports teams

Archival Tape -- Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves basketball player

“It was a bittersweet moment that justice was served, but it was served that the cost of the life”

MARY:

Politicians, celebrities...

Archival Tape -- Unnamed celebrity

“I started crying and I did not expect to be that emotional or still this emotional about it”

MARY:

Everyone seemed to be watching and waiting for this verdict and a lot of them celebrated once it was announced.

Archival Tape -- Unnamed celebrity

“So I think part of it is a kind of relief and releasing for the people who didn’t get to hear ‘guilty’...”

MARY:

We're told that sentencing will happen in about eight weeks or two months. The legal experts that I've been listening to think that it will be definitely more than 12 and a half years, but less than that maximum sentence of 40 years. And I think the next step really is in August, the other three Minneapolis, former-Minneapolis police officers that were on the scene with Derek Chauvin, that May Day, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tuo Thao, they will go on trial in August. So a lot of people are watching- are going to be watching that case as well.

RUBY:

And this verdict is obviously significant in terms of delivering justice for George Floyd and for his family. But, as you as you say, the movement that surged after his killing, that's always been about these fundamental structural changes to policing and to inequality. So where is the U.S. at with that? Is there a sense that this kind of structural change is happening?

MARY:

Yeah, I think that's that's the fear of a lot of people because, yes, this happened and there was a guilty verdict now. But a lot of people are wondering what systemic changes will be put into place to make sure that this doesn't happen again. We saw some small changes on the city level here in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd. Chokeholds were banned, things like that, but really no concrete, monumental changes to policing. There were some small steps taken to defund the police department. Also steps taken by the Minneapolis City Council to abolish the police department. But I think really the calls now that I've been hearing is, this can't be the end in the fight towards justice and in the fight towards police reform. It can't- it can't happen again. It feels like there's momentum to do this, but it's felt like there's been momentum to do this after every high profile police killing involving a person of colour. So I think time will really tell whether those words will move into action. And ultimately, a lot of this falls in the laps of the legislators here on the state level and also on, you know, Countrywide. So we'll have to wait and see if they vote to enact change and want to put those measures in place on a policy level. But I think there's also just a real deep sense of sadness. You know, of course, a lot of people were hoping for this guilty verdict, but in the same breath, George Floyd died. And he was, I think, watching that video again and again in court for the last really month has been very traumatising for a lot of people. And of course, after, you know, the days after George Floyd’s death in May to see our city torn apart by riots and by violence was was very devastating for a lot of people. I've heard from a lot of people, you know, this isn't the Minnesota that I know. This isn't the Minnesota that I'm proud of. And I think there's- there's a sense of relief, but there's a sense of sadness that this happened in the first place. And then again, like I mentioned, the killing of Dante Wright in the midst of this trial, I think that that really emphasised to people that things need to change and this is still happening.

RUBY:

Mary, thank you so much for talking to me about this today.

MARY:

Thank you so much for having me.

RUBY:

Since 1991, more than 470 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody in Australia. There have been no convictions in relation to any of those deaths. Right now, two serving police officers are awaiting trial after being charged with the murder of Aboriginal people. 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker was allegedly shot dead by a police officer in the community of Yuendumu, in the Northern Territory, in 2019. In the same year, a young woman known as JC was allegedly shot dead in Geraldton, in Western Australia.

7am will be following both of those trials.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today...Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has spoken about the death of Kelly Wilkinson on the Gold Coast this week, saying in Parliament that she wanted justice to be served. The remains of the 27-year-old woman were found in the backyard of her home on Tuesday morning… her estranged husband has been charged with murder and breaching a domestic violence order.

And the Australian government has intervened to scrap a controversial trade agreement between Victoria and China. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the agreement was not in the national interest. The Chinese Embassy in Australia said the decision was “unreasonable and provocative”.

7am is a daily show from The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. It’s produced by Ruby Schwartz, Elle Marsh, Atticus Bastow, Michelle Macklem, and Cinnamon Nippard.

Brian Campeau mixes the show. Our editor is Osman Faruqi. Erik Jensen is our editor-in-chief.

Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.

New episodes of 7am are released every weekday morning. Follow us in your favourite podcast app, to make sure you don’t miss out.

I’m Ruby Jones, see ya next week.

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