Judging Freedom - 3 Minneapolis cops found GUILTY of violating George Floyd's civil rights

Episode Date: February 25, 2022

Three Minneapolis cops found GUILTY of violating George Floyd's civil rightsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Save $80 with code SPACE80 at Talkspace.com. hello there everyone judge andrew napolitano here for judging freedom today is friday february 25th 2022 it's about 10 minutes after 10 in the morning on the east coast of the united states here in northwest new jersey we are covered with ice and snow and it's sleeting and hailing out. It's a mess, but the sun will be out this afternoon. There's no sun in the lives of three former Minneapolis cops and there's no sun in the lives of George Floyd. That case just keeps going on. The three cops who stood around while Derek Chauvin actually murdered George Floyd were convicted yesterday in federal court in Minneapolis of violating Mr. Floyd's civil rights, in this case, the right to move freely and the right to live. As police officers,

they had an affirmative obligation to interfere with their colleague as he was slowly compressing Floyd's chest and choking him to death. The jury found the three of them guilty of all charges. Now they will face state charges. Notwithstanding the prohibition in the Constitution against double jeopardy, meaning you can't be tried twice for the same crime. And there's a split in the legal community on this. The current view of the majority of the Supreme Court of the United States is that if a criminal event triggers

the violation of two crimes, two criminal statutes, a state statute and a federal statute, that both the state government and the federal government can try the perpetrator for the same event without violating the double jeopardy clause. The progressives and the libertarians disagree. A famous dissent written by Justice Neil Gorsuch just two years ago, joined in by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, argued that the Constitution means what it says and the government, no government, can try a person for a crime for which they've already been tried and convicted, but that's not the law. I would imagine that these three cops will plead guilty in state court. Can they serve their time together? Meaning if they're each sentenced to 20 years in state

court and 20 years in federal, do they serve 20 or do they serve 40? They serve 40. Well, not the full 40 because you get credit for good behavior and time off and other statutory reductions. But there's no credit given for the time served for another crime. I don't know what's going to happen in the state court. If I were the judge, I would encourage them to plead guilty. There's no reason to try this case yet again. But a guilty plea is a contract. It's an agreement between the government and the defendants, and an agreement is an agreement. So if they can't come to terms, which includes the duration of the prison sentence, then there's no agreement, and these guys will be tried again for effectively the same events, but a different criminal statute, this one prohibiting homicide in a Minnesota state court. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom.