https://nypost.com/2021/04/25/minnesota-ag-says-he-felt-a-little-bad-for-derek-chauvin/
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison says he ‘felt a little bad’ for Derek Chauvin
By Tamar Lapin
April 25, 2021 8:22pm Updated
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison admitted he "felt a little bad" for Derek Chauvin.
John Autey/Pioneer Press/Pool via REUTERS
The lead prosecutor in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial admitted in an interview aired on Sunday that he “felt a little bad” for the convicted former Minneapolis police officer.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was asked on CBS’ “60 Minutes” about his reaction when the jury came back with a guilty verdict in the high-profile case last week.
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“Gratitude — humility — followed by a certain sense of, I’ll say satisfaction. It’s what we were aiming for the whole time,” Ellison responded, according to a transcript of the interview.
“I spent 16 years as a criminal defense lawyer, so, I will admit, I felt a little bad for the defendant,” Ellison added. “I think he deserved to be convicted. But he’s a human being.”
Asked about his apparent compassion for the killer ex-cop, Ellison said that he was “not in any way wavering from my responsibility.”
“But I hope we never forget that people who are defendants in our criminal justice system, that they’re human beings,” he told the outlet.
“They’re people. I mean, George Floyd was a human being. And so I’m not going to ever forget that everybody in this process is a person.”
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is shown in a combination of police booking photos after a jury found him guilty on all counts in his trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. April 20, 2021.
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is shown in police booking photos after a jury found him guilty on all counts in his trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 20, 2021.
Minnesota Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS
Regarding Chauvin’s possible motive, Ellison said he didn’t believe Floyd’s murder was a hate crime.
“I wouldn’t call it that because hate crimes are crimes where there’s an explicit motive and of bias,” he said. “We don’t have any evidence that Derek Chauvin factored in George Floyd’s race as he did what he did.”
CBS host Scott Pelley pressed Ellison on that point, saying, “The whole world sees this as a white officer killing a black man because he is black. And you’re telling me that there’s no evidence to support that?”
“In our society, there is a social norm that killing certain kinds of people is more tolerable than other kinds of people,” Ellison replied.
former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, center, is taken into custody as his attorney, Eric Nelson, left, looks on, after the verdicts were read at Chauvin's trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin is taken into custody after the verdicts were read at Chauvin’s trial for the death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021.
Court TV via AP, Pool
“In order for us to stop and pay serious attention to this case and be outraged by it, it’s not necessary that Derek Chauvin had a specific racial intent to harm George Floyd,” he continued.