Local attorney weighs in on new charges in George Floyd case
COLUMBIA Mo. (KMIZ)
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office upgraded charges Wednesday against the former Minneapolis police officers allegedly responsible for George Floyd's death.
ABC 17 spoke with local attorney and former Cole County prosecutor Bill Tackett about what the next steps are in the case.
Tackett said there are a couple of things the criminal justice system has to look at before the police officers can be sentenced.
"The first question is, 'Was there an abuse of the use of force? Was there a justification for their conduct?' Then you switch to, 'Was there an assault?' Then, 'Did the assault lead to the murder?' That's kind of the sequence," Tackett said.
The former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin now faces second degree murder along with the original charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.
"Murder in the second degree, it can be intentional or it can be felony murder and what that means is if a felony is being committed anybody that dies in the middle of that everybody else gets charged with felony murder, that's also murder in the second degree," Tackett said. "In this case, what they're charging is - they assaulted George Floyd, In the process of that felony assault, he died and therefore, it's second degree murder or what we call in prosecution, felony murder."
Ellison's office also charged the three other former officers at the scene with aiding and abetting murder.
"That act has to be proven, the assault has to go outside of the laws on use of force," Tacket said. "If they prove that - if they prove it wasn't justified, then they go the next step and that is 'Was there an assault?' Obviously there was - 'Was there causation to the murder?' Obviously there was so, the use of force laws are the first hurdle." Then, the next one of course is the jury selection and getting people to uncloak police officers and tream them the same as they would treat anyone else."
Tackett also referenced the Rodney King case where the police officer was acquitted because of the use of force laws. However, Tackett said in that case there was resistance, in the Floyd case you dont have resistance.
