WASHINGTON – Attorney General Merrick Garland has kept his confirmatory pledge to refocus the Justice Department on civil rights after four years of turmoil during the Trump administration as such investigations waned.
For the past two weeks the division has been investigating police in Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis. Federal prosecutors have indicted four former Minneapolis police officers on civil rights violations in George Floyd’s death and three men on hate crimes in the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. In both criminal cases, authorities brought federal charges before most of the defendants were brought to justice.
“What we couldn’t get [the Justice Department] in the case of Eric Garner to do Michael Brown in Ferguson, [Mo.]and countless others, we’re finally seeing them, “Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday after the charges in Floyd’s death were announced.
Former Minneapolis official Derek Chauvin has already been convicted of murder and manslaughter in a state court and is due to be convicted on June 25. The federal case could be insurance against a successful state appeal or a mild sentence.
Separately, federal officials charged Chauvin in a 2017 case in which he arrested a 14-year-old boy. Chauvin is accused of hitting the boy, who is black, with a flashlight, holding him to the ground and placing his knee on the boy’s neck and back.
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, filed for retrial on Floyd’s death, citing a number of reasons, including the advertising that was “so ubiquitous and so detrimental … that it was a structural flaw in the trial “.
He also argued that trial judge Peter Cahill misused his discretion in denying requests to postpone the trial. Cahill didn’t say when he would decide on Nelson’s rescheduling motion.
Nelson had no comment on the federal allegations.
The three other officers, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng, and Tou Thao, who have been charged with civil rights, have not yet been tried in a state court for assisting and facilitating second-degree murder in the Floyd case.
As a rule, federal prosecutors withhold all charges until the local investigation is complete. But when they do, it is often viewed as a safety net against the difficulty of keeping track of law enforcement agencies on the ground.
The federal fee is limited in scope and has rarely been used. According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, prosecutors used it an average of 41 times a year between 1990 and 2019.
In the 1960s, federal authorities successfully prosecuted eight men involved in the 1964 disappearances and murders of Neshoba County, Miss., Civil rights activists Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner after local authorities said they did not have enough Evidence to prosecute someone.
One of the most famous applications of federal law was the 1992 Rodney King case in Los Angeles. Federal authorities accused four law enforcement officers of violating King’s constitutional rights in his taped beatings. That decision was made after a jury in Simi Valley acquitted the state trial officials, which sparked riots in Los Angeles for several days.
It’s not clear if Garland stepped in to help local Minneapolis prosecutors with the three officials, but it is likely that they will communicate about the cases. Similarly, in Georgia, Travis McMichael has been charged with federal hate crimes. his father Gregory; and a third man, William “Roddie” Bryan, on the death of 25-year-old Arbery. The three are jailed for state murder and will be tried this week. The selection of the jury begins on October 18th.
Arbery was killed at close range by three shotguns on February 23, 2020 after the McMichaels chased him in a pickup truck. Arbery had been dead for more than two months when a cell phone video of the shooting leaked online, causing a national outcry. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took the case and arrested the men.
Information on this article was contributed by Gary Fields and Colleen Long of The Associated Press.
FILE – On April 20, 2021, defendant, former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, hears verdicts at his trial of the 2020 death of George Floyd at the Hennepin County Courthouse, Minneapolis. Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in a state court and is due to be convicted on June 25. Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, has filed a new lawsuit over Floyd’s death, citing a number of reasons, including publicity, which was “so” ubiquitous and so detrimental … that it was a structural flaw in the process . “(Court TV via AP, Pool)
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice in Washington as Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta and Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco on Monday, April 26, 2021. Listen. The Justice Department is opening a full investigation into Louisville policing following the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed by police in a raid on her home. (Almond Ngan / Pool via AP)
This combination of photos, provided by the Hennepin County Minnesota Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday June 3, 2020, shows Minneapolis Police Officers Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao from left. Chauvin. (Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
FILE – This Friday August 9, 2019, Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, is praying with a group of Rainbow of Mothers before laying a large wreath on her son’s grave on the fifth anniversary of that death in St. Peter’s Cemetery in St. Louis. Left is Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, who was killed by police in Ohio in 2014. In the center is Ben Crump, her lawyer, and on the right her husband Louis Head. (Laurie Skrivan / St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
FILE – In this file photo dated December 15, 2014, Samaria Rice of Cleveland, Ohio, mother of Tamir Rice, touches her hand in front of her face during an interview at The Associated Press in New York. A Cleveland police officer fatally shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice on November 22 while he was playing with a toy gun in front of a recreational center. The family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot dead by Cleveland police in 2014, asked the Justice Department on Friday to reopen the case on the boy’s death after it was closed in the Trump administration’s final weeks. (AP Photo / Mark Lennihan)
FILE – In this February 23, 2021 file photo, Wanda Cooper-Jones kneels in front of her son Ahmaud Arbery’s grave at New Springfield Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Georgia to celebrate the one year anniversary of Ahmaud Arbery’s death in Brunswick, Ga. The Justice Department announced on Wednesday April 28, 2021, on charges of hate crimes when Arbery died after being killed during a run. (AP Photo / Lewis M. Levine, file)
In this May 25, 2020 file image from a surveillance video, Minneapolis police officers from left Tou Thao, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane attempt to arrest George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota (judicial TV via AP ), Pool, file)
FILE – This combination of posting photos from the Glynn County, Georgia internment camp shows, from left, Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. The Justice Department announced hate crime charges against the three men Wednesday April 28, 2021, on the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Georgia man who was killed in a run last year. All three are charged with one-time violation of civil rights and attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels are also accused of using, carrying and swinging a firearm during a violent crime. (Glynn County Detention Center via AP)
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