Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has become the latest in a small group of law enforcement officials who have been convicted of murder for actions taken while in uniform.
Chauvin was found guilty on all charges on Tuesday, including second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, in connection to the death of George Floyd, 46. Floyd’s death was captured on video, and it showed Chauvin using his knee on his neck to pin Floyd to the ground for over eight minutes.
After about 10 hours of deliberation, the jury made Chauvin the eighth police officer to be convicted of murder since 2005, Philip Matthew Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University who spearheads a group that tracks data on police crimes, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
Those officers are sentenced to an average of 16 years in prison. There have been 23 officers convicted of various manslaughter charges during the same time period.
CROWD OUTSIDE MINNEAPOLIS COURTROOM CHEERS GUILTY VERDICT IN DEREK CHAUVIN TRIAL
There have been 140 officers charged with either murder or manslaughter, he said.
Some of those officers include:
Amber Guyger: Guyger, formerly a Dallas police officer, killed 26-year-old Botham Jean on Sept. 6, 2018, after she walked into his apartment, thinking it was her own. Believing Jean was an intruder, she shot him and was later fired and charged with murder. She was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Mohamed Noor: Noor, a police officer from Minneapolis, was found guilty of third-degree murder and manslaughter charges in connection to the death of Justine Ruszczyk. The former officer was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison in 2019. The incident took place on July 15, 2017, when he and his partner were dispatched to investigate a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her house. He shot Ruszczyk when she approached the vehicle, thinking his partner was in danger.
Michael Slager: Slager, in April 2015, pulled over Walter Scott because of a broken taillight, and the traffic stop turned fatal when Scott ran from his vehicle. Slager used his Taser, pulled out his firearm, and shot him five times in the back. His trial resulted in a hung jury, and the two sides then agreed to a plea deal instead of retrying him. He pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation, and the judge ruled that he committed second-degree murder and obstruction of justice.
Jason Van Dyke: Van Dyke, a former Chicago police officer, was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery in the killing of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old. He was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison in 2018.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
There have been a number of other high-profile police shootings that have either resulted in convictions on lesser charges or that have not resulted in any convictions, including the shootings of Michael Brown, Philando Castile, and Breonna Taylor. Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold, a move that had been banned by the New York Police Department for over 25 years.
