Derek Chauvin, appearing in court yesterday, faces up to 40 years in prison over the death of George FloydThe police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck failed to release his grip even after he was told that the unarmed black man had no pulse, a jury in Minneapolis was told on the first day of his trial. Derek Chauvin, 45, “put his knees upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him, until the very breath — no, ladies and gentlemen — until the very life, was squeezed out of him,” the prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said in his opening statement. “He does not let up. He doesn’t get up.”SponsoredMinneapolis and much of America came to a standstill as the trial began ten months after a video of Floyd’s death led to calls for racial justice in US cities and around

Source: The Times March 29, 2021 18:00 UTC