Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill has reinstated a third-degree murder charge against
the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd.
Cahill granted the request from prosecutors to reinstate the charge after the former officer, Derek Chauvin, failed to get the state Supreme Court to block it.
Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd's neck for about nine minutes May 25, is already charged with second-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years, as well as second-degree manslaughter. The third-degree murder charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years.
Cahill dismissed the charge last fall because he believed that the circumstances of Chauvin's case did not fit, but
an appellate court ruling in an unrelated case established new grounds for it days before jury selection started. Cahill
ruled at the time that a third-degree murder charge under Minnesota law requires proof that someone's conduct was "eminently dangerous to others," not just to Floyd.
Cahill said Thursday that he is now bound by a ruling, stemming from a recent decision involving the conviction of former officer Mohamed Noor, which stated that third-degree murder can be applied to acts directed toward a single person.
"I am granting the motion because although these cases are factually different — that is Noor and the case before us — I don't think it's a factual difference that weighs in favor of denying the motion to reinstate," Cahill said.
Cahill said a legal principal had been established as precedent: "When the intent is directed at a single person, then third-degree murder may apply. Single acts directed at a single person fall within the gambit of murder in the third degree."
