The American justice system is supposed to work based on the presumption of innocence. To achieve a guilty verdict, a prosecutor must provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
It was nearly four years ago that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all federal and state charges in the killing of George Floyd. But the decision was largely expected, not because proof beyond a reasonable doubt was presented, but because the presumption of innocence was turned on its head.
Without a doubt, Chauvin was declared guilty before the trial even began by almost all of the media, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and every 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. This included former President Joe Biden, who called the evidence before a verdict was rendered in April 2021 “overwhelming” while sharing that he was “praying for the right outcome” after speaking with Floyd’s family.
Here were Walz’s comments in May 2020, months before Chauvin’s trial began (emphasis mine).
“Let’s be very clear: The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” he declared. “It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear, and disrupting our great cities.”
“It was malicious, and it was unacceptable,” Frey said at the time. “There is no gray there.”
Actually, there was plenty of gray there. But imagine being on this jury in a state that has voted for the Democratic nominee in 30 consecutive presidential elections and having this kind of pressure exerted from its so-called leaders on the national, state, and local levels.
Enter conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, who recently argued on his highly popular podcast that President Donald Trump should consider pardoning Chauvin based on the evidence that he says was overlooked by the jury.
“George Floyd was high on fentanyl,” Shapiro noted. “He had a significant preexisting heart condition. George Floyd was saying he could not breathe before he was even out of the car. He was in the car saying he could not breathe.
“Derek Chauvin, for large segments of even the tape that was shown, had his knee on George Floyd’s shoulder or back — not on his neck. The autopsy of George Floyd showed that he had no damage to his trachea, that probably George Floyd died of excited delirium. There were no accusations, even at trial, that Derek Chauvin had committed a hate crime against George Floyd or that he targeted George Floyd because of his race.
“There was massive overt pressure on the [Minnesota] jury to return a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence or any semblance of impartial deliberation. This pressure took the form of threats, coercion, and intimidation. There was no opportunity for blind justice to work, and a man is now rotting in prison because of it.”
Not only is Chauvin rotting in prison, but his life is also in constant danger. In November 2023, on Black Friday, he was stabbed 22 times by a former gang leader. The inmate charged with attempted murder said he carried out the attack on Black Friday as a symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement. Chauvin barely survived.
As for the overt pressure to return a guilty verdict that Shapiro was alluding to, just listen to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and what she had to say during the trial if a guilty verdict was not rendered.
“We got to stay on the street,” she said at the time. “And we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
The judge in the case, Peter Cahill, later told Chauvin’s defense team that Waters “may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned.”
“I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function,” Cahill added.
Elon Musk has also recently argued that Chauvin “did nothing wrong” and was unfairly prosecuted. But Trump, when asked if he was considering a pardon, would not commit to doing so, saying it was the first he heard of it.
For Trump, a pardon would have almost no political upside. It would enrage many black voters. Riots would surely ensue, just as they did after Floyd’s death in 2020, which led to more than $2 billion in damage in cities across 20 states in that year alone. More than 2,000 police officers were injured, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
A pardon would also not make Chauvin a free man because he was sentenced on the federal and state levels and is serving both sentences concurrently.
Speaking of outrage at even the idea of Chauvin receiving a pardon, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who has expanded his commentary well beyond sports into politics, was patently indignant of Shapiro’s proposal, claiming the conservative podcaster’s argument was based on Chauvin’s race.
“I’ll ask you another question, Ben Shapiro,” Smith said during his radio show. “You brought up drug use. You brought up a criminal record. Respectfully, sir, would you have taken that position if George Floyd was a Jewish person? A white Jewish person?”
In other words, Smith is arguing that Shapiro would have zero problem with a black police officer being falsely convicted of murder based on the skin color and religion of the suspect. If the suspect were Jewish, so the argument goes, Shapiro would have been fine with him going to jail over it even if the evidence told him he should not.
The problem, of course, is that this case wouldn’t have made national headlines if Chauvin wasn’t white.
Let’s say this was a black officer and a white suspect or even a black officer and a black suspect. Would Biden have weighed in on the case well before trial? Would Walz have used the word “murder” to describe the black officer’s intent? Would the mayor have called the officer’s actions “malicious and unacceptable”? Would Waters have implored people to take to the streets if a not guilty verdict was rendered?
Of course not.
The media also had a predetermined narrative to push ahead of a presidential election: that systemic racism is rampant, especially in law enforcement. Floyd, they said, was a victim of the system and deserved to be memorialized and celebrated.
“We cannot leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away from racism that stings at our very soul, from systemic abuse that still plagues American life,” Biden said during a video message played at Floyd’s funeral.
The constant unrest continued through the summer of 2020 up until Election Day. Biden positioned himself as a lifelong civil rights champion, even going so far as to say he had been arrested on several occasions in the name of it, including in South Africa, but this was a total lie. Regardless, Biden won the election while Democrats took back the Senate and continued to control the House.
Mission accomplished.
Derek Chauvin, now 49, will likely be in prison for most of the rest of his life. That is, if he isn’t killed first.
A pardon may not be the answer, but an appeal very much is. Chauvin’s legal team has recently been granted access to Floyd’s fluid and heart tissue, as well as photos of his heart, in an effort to determine the extent of his heart condition and if that was the true cause of death.
Race isn’t what’s important here. The facts and evidence are.
The presumption of innocence needs to be applied to the Chauvin case, as does proof beyond a reasonable doubt. And this time, hopefully, the media and Democrats don’t attempt to intimidate the jury pool.
Let justice be served one way or the other.
Blindly and fairly.