The judicial process that awaits Derek Chauvin

The prevention machine has failed in the case of George Floyd, but the United States is not exactly a country that leaves serious crimes unpunished. The first judicial proceedings already point to the process that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin will face, who placed his white knee tightly on the victim's neck for eight long minutes that caused the detainee's anguish and suffocation. The images that are being reconstructed and that come to light day after day do not help the defense of the accused, who will spend the next few years in jail trying to mitigate as much as possible a sure sentence that will in all likelihood be relentless. 

For the moment, the Minnesota State's Attorney's Office has already established the consideration of the crime he will defend in court: second-degree murder. The difference in the crime type from the first degree is that it is an unplanned case of murder where there may be intent and malice on the part of the perpetrator. In Spain this criminal figure would be assimilated to homicide, when a person causes the death of another, and here it can be considered imprudent or malicious. 

There has been erroneous speculation about Derek's possible execution because Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911. According to the website Confilegal.com, "In Washington, D.C., second-degree murder carries a sentence of 20 to 40 years (you can ask for conditional release upon completion of one third of your sentence); in California, 15 years to life imprisonment; in New York, 15 to 25 years or life imprisonment; Florida, 10 to 25 years or life imprisonment; Illinois, 4 to 20 years. In states such as Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana and Mississippi, they can be sentenced to a life sentence". But what does Minnesota's law say? Under section 609.19 of the Statutes, compiled in 2019 and published by the bicameral Minnesota Legislature, second-degree murder is defined in two subsections: 

• Intentional murder, whose perpetrators are guilty of second-degree murder and can be sentenced to prison for no more than 40 years. The perpetrator causes the death of a human being with the intention of causing that person's death, but without premeditation. 
• Involuntary killing. Whoever commits it may be sentenced to prison equally for not more than 40 years. The perpetrator causes the death of the victim, without intent to do so. The text explains precisely that this type is applicable when the perpetrator intentionally inflicts or attempts to inflict bodily harm on the victim, but without the intention of causing his death. 

Derek Chauvin has a record as an officer of the Minnesota Police Department of nearly twenty complaints about his procedures in arresting and identifying suspects, which will be used by Floyd's family attorney, Benjamin Crump, as an aggravating factor in the process that will also involve charges of subsidiary responsibility for the city. 

Those who cry out in Europe against American racism and its brutalities should know that sentences in the United States are harsh and hard to enforce. It is all very well from the European pulpit to send empty messages of support for the demonstrations, even if they are violent (we heard it this week in the Congressional Court), and then to defend positions against the forcefulness of the punishment under the premise that the Constitution prioritizes reintegration rather than punishment of those who commit horrible blood crimes. Repugnance to the crime, but condescension to the criminal. 

Barack Obama has given, in his videoconference talk for the Foundation that bears his name, one of the keys to this whole gigantic conflict that has erupted in American society, larvated for years, but always present: the police forces have to extreme controls to prevent agents with racist behaviour or deviations from patrolling the streets. The existence of a strong anti-African-American sentiment in the police forces of large cities has led to a succession of events as regrettable as that of Floyd or Rodney King. And it is the mayors Obama has addressed who are in charge of cleaning up the metropolitan police departments in each of those cities. 

In six southeastern states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina), the African-American population exceeds 20 percent. Of these, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia are between 35 and 40 percent. In eighteen other states (excluding Nevada, all are located in the eastern half of the country such as Ohio, Illinois, or New York) the black population is between 15 and 20 percent. The problem of racism in all of these states has been rooted for centuries.