WORLD NEWS FLASH
UNITED STATES
The U.S. Justice Department announced on July 7 that former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, 46, was sentenced to serve 252 months in prison with credit for time served for depriving George Floyd, Jr. and a then-14-year-old child of their constitutional rights.
On Dec. 15, 2021, Chauvin pleaded guilty in federal court to violating a federal criminal civil rights statute on two separate occasions. First, Chauvin pleaded guilty to willfully depriving Mr. Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, resulting in Mr. Floyd’s bodily injury and death. In the plea documents, Chauvin agreed that the sentencing for this crime should be based on the sentence for second-degree murder because he acted willfully and in callous and wanton disregard of the consequences to Mr. Floyd’s life.
Chauvin also pleaded guilty to willfully depriving a then-14-year-old child of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, resulting in the child’s bodily injury.
“In no uncertain terms, George Floyd should be alive today,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Defendant Chauvin’s use of excessive force and his failure to provide medical care resulted in Mr. Floyd’s senseless murder. Chauvin’s unlawful actions in a separate incident also resulted in injury to a 14-year-old child. This sentence should send a strong message that the Justice Department stands ready to prosecute law enforcement officers who use deadly force without basis. While no amount of prison time can reverse the tragic consequences of Derek Chauvin’s violent actions, we hope that this sentence provides some small measure of justice for the families and communities impacted.”
“Derek Chauvin abandoned his sworn oath to uphold the sanctity of life when he callously took George Floyd’s life and when he violently assaulted a 14-year-old child,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger for the District of Minnesota. “Chauvin’s actions constituted a grave abuse of police authority and a clear violation of these individuals’ civil rights. To the victims, their families, and to the broader community: although the harm that Chauvin caused will never be erased, today’s sentence of more than 20 years in prison represents a measure of justice and accountability.”
In the plea agreement, Chauvin admitted that on May 25, 2020, he willfully violated Mr. Floyd’s constitutional right to be free from an officer’s use of unreasonable force. Specifically, Chauvin admitted that he held his left knee across Mr. Floyd’s neck, back and shoulder and his right knee on Mr. Floyd’s back and arm. The plea agreement stated that Mr. Floyd remained restrained, prone and handcuffed on the ground for approximately 10 minutes. Chauvin further admitted that he continued to use force even though he was aware that Mr. Floyd had stopped resisting, talking and moving, and even though he was aware that Mr. Floyd had lost consciousness and a pulse.
Chauvin admitted that Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) policy and training requires officers to stop using force when a subject is not resisting and to move an arrestee from the prone position into a side recovery or seated position because the prone position may make it more difficult to breathe. Chauvin admitted that his willful use of unreasonable force resulted in Mr. Floyd’s bodily injury and death because his actions impaired Mr. Floyd’s ability to obtain and maintain sufficient oxygen to sustain Mr. Floyd’s life.
In the plea agreement, Chauvin also admitted that he willfully violated Mr. Floyd’s constitutional right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law, which includes an arrestee’s right to be free from a police officer’s deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. Specifically, Chauvin admitted that he failed to render medical aid to Mr. Floyd, although he saw that Mr. Floyd was lying on the ground, in serious medical need, and although he was aware that MPD policy required him to provide emergency medical aid, including CPR, to an arrestee who needs it. Chauvin admitted that his failure to render medical aid resulted in Mr. Floyd’s bodily injury and death.
Additionally, according to the plea agreement, Chauvin admitted that on Sept. 4, 2017, he willfully violated the then-14-year-old child’s constitutional right to be free from an officer’s use of unreasonable force. Specifically, Chauvin admitted that he held the child by the throat and struck the child multiple times in the head with a flashlight, resulting in the child’s bodily injury. In the plea agreement, Chauvin also admitted that he held his knee on the child’s neck, shoulders and upper back for between 15 and 16 minutes, even though the child was face-down on the floor, handcuffed and not resisting. Chauvin admitted that these actions resulted in the child’s bodily injury.
On Feb. 24, 2022, following a more than month-long trial, a federal jury convicted three other officers – former Minneapolis Police Officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Kiernan Lane – of violating the same criminal civil rights statute. The jury found that Thao and Kueng both willfully deprived Mr. Floyd of his constitutional rights when they failed to intervene in Chauvin’s excessive force.
The jury also found that Thao, Kueng and Lane willfully deprived Mr. Floyd of his right to be free from a police officer’s deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs, by seeing Mr. Floyd in clear need of medical care and willfully failing to aid him. The jury found that Thao, Kueng and Lane’s offenses resulted in Mr. Floyd’s bodily injury and death. Thao, Kueng and Lane will be sentenced separately at a future hearing.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. It was prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Samantha Trepel and Trial Attorney Tara Allison of the Civil Rights Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samantha Bates, LeeAnn Bell, Evan Gilead, Manda Sertich and Allen Slaughter for the District of Minnesota.
EUROPE
JOHNSON OUT AS PRIME MINISTER
After scandal upon scandal, one of the most polarizing figures in the United Kingdom is finally stepping aside.
On July 7, UK Prime Minster Boris Johnson announced his intention to resign from the position. From COVID lockdown parties to harassment charges, Johnson’s tenure has been a breeding for derision. Economic slippage due to world factors such as the war in Ukraine weakened his support base, and the mass resignations of members of parliament was the last straw.
“It is now clearly the will of the parliamentary conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party, and therefore a new Prime Minister. And I have agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week and I have today appointed a cabinet to serve – as I will – until a new leader is in place,” Johnson said in a speech.
“So I want to say to the millions of people who voted for us in 2019 – many of them voting Conservative for the first time. Thank you for that incredible mandate. The biggest Conservative majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979, and the reason I have fought so hard for the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019.
“And of course I am immensely proud of the achievements of this government, from getting Brexit done and settling our relations with the continent after half a century, reclaiming the power for this country to make its own laws in parliament, getting us all through the pandemic, delivering the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, the fastest exit from lockdown, and in the last few months leading the west in standing up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.
“…To that new leader I say, whoever he or she may be, I will give you as much support as I can, and to you the British people I know that there will be many who are relieved, but perhaps quite a few who will be disappointed. And I want you to know how sad I am to give up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks.
“I want to thank Carrie and our children, to all the members of my family who have had to put up with so much for so long. I want to thank the peerless British civil service for all the help and support that you have given…
“Our police, our emergency services and of course our NHS who at a critical moment helped to extend my own period in office, as well as our armed services and our agencies that are so admired around the world…
“…I want to thank the wonderful staff here at Number Ten (10 Downing Street) and of course at chequers and our fantastic protforce detectives – the one group, by the way, who never leak, and above all I want to thank you the British public for the immense privilege you have given me. And I want you to know that from now until the new Prime Minister is in place, your interests will be served and the government of the country will be carried on.
“Being Prime Minister is an education in itself. I have travelled to every part of the United Kingdom and in addition to the beauty of our natural world.
“I have found so many people possessed of such boundless British originality and so willing to tackle old problems in new ways that I know that even if things can sometimes seem dark now, our future together is golden. Thank you all very much.”
AFRICA
GHANA BRACING FOR POSSIBLE OUTBREAK
Preliminary findings of two Marburg virus cases have prompted Ghana to prepare for a potential outbreak of the disease. If confirmed, these would the first such infections recorded in the country, and only the second in West Africa. Marburg is a highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever in the same family as the more well-known Ebola virus disease.
Preliminary analysis of samples taken from two patients by the country’s Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research indicated the cases were positive for Marburg, and samples have been sent to the Institut Pasteur in Senegal, a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre, for confirmation.
The two, unrelated, patients from the southern Ashanti region showed symptoms including diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting. They have both died.
Preparations for a possible outbreak response are being set up swiftly as further investigations are underway, and WHO is deploying experts to support Ghana’s health authorities by bolstering disease surveillance, testing, tracing contacts, preparing to treat patients and working with communities to alert and educate them about the risks and dangers of the disease and to collaborate with the emergency response teams.
“The health authorities are on the ground investigating the situation and preparing for a possible outbreak response”, said Dr Francis Kasolo, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Ghana. “We are working closely with the country to ramp up detection, track contacts, be ready to control the spread of the virus.”
If confirmed, the cases in Ghana would mark the second time Marburg has been detected in West Africa. Guinea confirmed a single case in an outbreak that was declared over on 16 September 2021, five weeks after the initial case was detected.
Previous outbreaks and sporadic cases of Marburg in Africa have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
Marburg is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials. Illness begins abruptly, with high fever, severe headache and malaise.
Many patients develop severe hemorrhagic signs within seven days. Case fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management.
Although there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the virus, supportive care – rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids – and treatment of specific symptoms, improves survival. A range of potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies, and drug therapies.
