ST. LOUIS — There are still some questions about what Derek Chauvin's guilty verdicts mean – now and for the future.
On Tuesday, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd in May of 2020.
"What the jury found was through a series of multiple actions, officer Chauvin was guilty of a crime under each of those three statutes," said Saint Louis University law professor Greg Willard. "Another way perhaps to analogize it would be if someone is racing down Highway 40 at 120 miles an hour and then begins to zoom in and out of lanes. The person is probably guilty of speeding and they're probably guilty of reckless driving.”
Willard also said this case has to be about more than Tuesday's news.
"We're dealing with human life here and a life that was taken by murder by one who was sworn to protect it. And in so doing that, he robbed [George Floyd's daughter] of having her daddy for the rest of her life," said Willard.
"I think the case, in an odd inexplicable way, brought to the forefront finally the problem of systemic racism in our country," he said.
Redditt Hudson is a former St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officer who left police work "disillusioned" with the criminal justice system.
"I was particularly disillusioned with the conduct of some of my colleagues. So, I walked away from that," said Hudson who went on to work for the American Civil Liberties Union and now in St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's office.
"It's important that Derek Chauvin was held accountable, but it's so much larger than that," said Hudson.
"We have a systemic racism issue and we have to be forthright and intentional about and addressing it. And we have an opportunity to do that around the country. And certainly we have an opportunity to do it here in St. Louis," Hudson said, referring to the city swearing in its first Black female mayor, Tishaura Jones, on the same day as the Chauvin verdict.
Asked what he would say to critics who argue Chauvin's conviction will have a "chilling" effect on police work Hudson said, "If the requirement for you to feel comfortable doing your job is to be allowed to murder someone sadistically, as we saw George Floyd murdered, with impunity and without consequence or accountability, get yourself a new damn job."
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