The jury returned a guilty verdict this afternoon. Let me just say that first. Chauvin has been convicted.
That said, Yes, we've been down this road before— a road where victory for justice at one turn, such as conviction at trial, is reversed at a later turn. It could happen here. But note my argument in the article above. Even if the conviction is reversed, points 3, 4 and 5 still represent important milestones of progress achieved with this trial. And points 1 and 2 represent milestones already achieved in multiple similar cases in recent years that have brought us closer to justice than we were able to reach years ago.
I'll also repeat my argument from the other thread: Reversals in criminal trials occur less frequently than in administrative proceedings. Refusing to prosecute cases of police wrongdoing and instead kick them over to internal review boards is part of the how the system and the powerful people at the top of it have avoided responsibility for far too long. Among the many aspects of that is that review boards are way less transparent than criminal court. They are the carpet that the system sweeps its problems underneath to hide them from public scrutiny. This case establishes strong precedent that that's not publicly acceptable anymore.
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That said, Yes, we've been down this road before— a road where victory for justice at one turn, such as conviction at trial, is reversed at a later turn. It could happen here. But note my argument in the article above. Even if the conviction is reversed, points 3, 4 and 5 still represent important milestones of progress achieved with this trial. And points 1 and 2 represent milestones already achieved in multiple similar cases in recent years that have brought us closer to justice than we were able to reach years ago.
I'll also repeat my argument from the other thread: Reversals in criminal trials occur less frequently than in administrative proceedings. Refusing to prosecute cases of police wrongdoing and instead kick them over to internal review boards is part of the how the system and the powerful people at the top of it have avoided responsibility for far too long. Among the many aspects of that is that review boards are way less transparent than criminal court. They are the carpet that the system sweeps its problems underneath to hide them from public scrutiny. This case establishes strong precedent that that's not publicly acceptable anymore.