Death Penalty News

569 seconds Three ex-Minneapolis policemen present at the death of George Floyd denied the unarmed black man of his civil rights, a jury has found. The officers were charged with showing "deliberate indifference to [Mr Floyd's] serious medical needs" during the attempted arrest in May 2020. Tou Thao, 36, J Alexander Kueng, 28, and Thomas Lane, 38, all testified in their own defence in the trial. They said they did not realise Mr Floyd needed medical care at the time. Violating a person's civil rights carries various punishments but prosecutors have recommended 25 years in federal prison for each man. Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who was filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes, is currently serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence. Chauvin was found guilty of Mr Floyd's murder last April. He also pleaded guilty in December to his own federal civil rights charges as part of a plea agreement. Video footage of the arrest shows Keung ...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Thursday in the federal trial for three former Minneapolis police officers who are charged with violating George Floyd's constitutional rights while fellow Officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to pin the Black man to the street. J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are broadly charged with depriving Floyd of his civil rights while acting under government authority. Separately, they are charged in state court with aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter. Legal experts say the federal trial will be more complicated than the state trial, scheduled for June 13, because prosecutors in this case have the difficult task of proving the officers willfully violated Floyd’s constitutional rights — unreasonably seizing him and depriving him of liberty without due process. "Charged with what they didn’t do" “In the state case, they’re charged with what they did. That they aided and abetted Chauvin in some way. In the federa...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal count alleging he willfully deprived George Floyd of his rights during the May 25, 2020, arrest that led to the Black man's death. He also pleaded guilty to an unrelated but similar count stemming from the use of force against a then-14-year-old boy, who is also Black, in 2017. Here's what the guilty pleas mean for Chauvin, and for the three other officers charged in Floyd's death. WHAT DOES THE PLEA IN FLOYD'S CASE MEAN? Essentially, it means Chauvin has acknowledged for the first time that he violated Floyd's rights. Chauvin admitted he knew what he did to Floyd was wrong and that he had a “callous and wanton disregard” for Floyd’s life, the plea agreement said. It also said Chauvin “was aware that Mr. Floyd not only stopped resisting, but also stopped talking, stopped moving, stopped breathing, and lost consciousness and a pulse.” Floyd's family member...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Four former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the federal charges against them. A federal grand jury indicted Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao in May for allegedly depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority on May 25, 2020, as Floyd, 46, was held face-down, handcuffed and not resisting in a restraint that was captured on bystander video. His death led to worldwide protests and calls for change in policing. All four of the men appeared at the hearing remotely via videoconference. Chauvin appeared from a room in the state's maximum security prison, where he is serving a 22 1/2-year sentence for murder in Floyd's death. The other three men appeared remotely alongside their attorneys.  Prosecutors and attorneys for the former officers are also arguing their positions on about 40 pretrial motions Tuesday.  Among them, Kueng and Thao have asked...

Lawyers representing 2 former North Carolina sheriff’s deputies agreed on Friday to a $9 million settlement with 2 intellectually disabled half brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 killing of an 11-year-old girl. The lawyers for former Robeson County Sheriff’s Office deputies James Locklear and Kenneth Sealey agreed in federal court to the settlement with Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who will split the settlement between them, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported. County Attorney Rob Davis said in an email to the newspaper that the insurance companies that cover the sheriff's office will pay the settlement. The settlement ends half of the civil case. Lawyers representing 2 former N.C. State Bureau of Investigation agents have not settled, and closing arguments in the civil case were set to continue for that part of the case on Friday. The town of Red Springs, originally named in the civil suit, settled in 2017 for $1 million. ...

Washington (AFP) -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a darling of the US left and an increasingly frail octogenarian, is taking center stage ahead of this year's presidential election, with the Supreme Court's balance hanging on her seemingly faltering health. Ginsburg's liver cancer -- and recent repeat trips to the hospital due to bile duct infection -- has Washington's political class on tenterhooks, with her every medical procedure causing major hand-wringing, not to mention a variety of contingency plans. Ginsburg was hospitalized yet again on Wednesday to "revise a bile duct stent," as her doctors assured the public that such things were "common occurrences." Should the 87-year-old, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy, leave the bench, President Donald Trump would move quickly to name a successor, with the Republican-led Senate likely to confirm the nomination in equally record speed as the November 3 election draws near. Th...

While the Coronavirus has been ravaging in various provinces across Iran, the regime’s security and judicial apparatus have heightened their persecution of minorities and political and civil rights activists. In May, many prisoners who were temporarily released have once again been returned to prison, aggravating the already horrid conditions in Iran’s notorious prisons. This is while there have been several cases of COVID-19 contagions, and even deaths from the virus in various Iranian prisons including Qarchak Prison, Urmia Central Prison, Sheiban Prison, Tehran’s Evin Prison, the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, and Mashhad’s Vakilabad Prison in northeastern Iran. Prison sentences and arrests There have been reports on numerous rights activists, lawyers and peaceful protesters who got imprisoned or brutalized in prison during the month of May. Some were handed down heavy sentences and others transferred to prison to serve their sentences. An appeals court sentence...

The White House isn't saying what kind of policing reforms President Trump will support at this point, but there is at least one non-starter — reducing immunity for police who violate civil rights.  The doctrine of qualified immunity largely shields government officials, including police officers, from liability for conduct on the job unless they violate "clearly established" constitutional rights.  Ending it would make it easier for individuals to hold police accountable.  House Democrats and independent Representative Justin Amash have introduced a bill that would end the doctrine. And meanwhile, the Supreme Court is considering reviewing the constitutionality of qualified immunity.  Following nearly two weeks of civil unrest throughout the nation in the wake of George Floyd's death, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president is "talking through a number of proposals" but declined to mention any specific measure, exc...

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday that the controversial extradition bill that has led to mass protests in the city is “dead.” Addressing the weeks-long drama during a news conference, she reiterated that there is no plan to restart the legislation. She described the work to amend the bill as a “total failure.” Lam, meanwhile, said she took full responsibility for what has happened in the city, according to a translation of her address. Political tensions in Hong Kong have risen in recent weeks amid protests over an extradition bill that would have allowed some arrested in the city to be sent for trial in mainland China. The bill had been suspended after a first round of demonstrations, but protesters continued taking to the street with calls for it to be withdrawn completely. “I have almost immediately put a stop to the (bill) amendment exercise, but there are still lingering doubts about the government’s sincerity, or worries whether the government will rest...