The Minnesota Republican party’s decision to hold a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, has angered the state’s attorney general – who was the lead prosecutor in the case.
Keith Ellison, a Democrat, said Saturday’s gesture at the state Republicans’ annual convention in Duluth was “an act of profound cruelty” to Floyd’s family and “disrespectful” to Minnesota’s law enforcement personnel.
“This decision dishonors the memory of George Floyd and wounds his loved ones all over again,” Ellison said in a statement.
Alluding to how the murder had happened six years earlier almost exactly, Ellison added: “To honor the man convicted of murdering George Floyd – days after the very anniversary of that terrible day – is an act of profound cruelty to the Floyd family and to every Minnesotan who believes in accountability under law.
“To honor a man who disgraced his oath to uphold the law and his badge is disturbing. And to honor a man who damaged the reputation of the brave men and women who protect our communities night and day is disrespectful.”
According to the local station Fox 9 News, the Minnesota Republican party granted the request of a delegate on the second morning of its two-day gathering to recognize Chauvin, who was sentenced to a 22-and-a-half-year prison term in 2021 for the second-degree murder of Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020.
Attenders reportedly stood in silence for about 10 seconds before the start of official business for the day.
The disgraced officer received a separate, concurrent 21-year sentence in 2022 for violating Floyd’s civil rights during their encounter, in which Chauvin knelt on his victim’s neck for more than nine minutes. Chauvin has had a succession of appeals rejected and was moved to a low-security facility in Texas in August 2024 after surviving a stabbing in prison in Arizona nine months earlier.
The death of Floyd, who was Black, at the hands of Chauvin – who is white – sparked violent protests in Minneapolis, along with a wider reckoning embodied by the Black Lives Matter movement over police brutality and racial injustice.
More recently, however, Chauvin has become something of a cause celebre for political rightwingers and conservative influencers, including Ben Shapiro, who has asserted Floyd was not suffocated but died of a pre-existing medical condition.
Calls for Trump to pardon Chauvin have been amplified by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and ally of the US president. Analysts say such a move by Trump would not secure Chauvin’s release from prison but would see him transferred instead to a state facility.
Ellison, in his statement, acknowledged Floyd’s family and noted that Chauvin had all but exhausted his legal options after the US supreme court denied an appeal against his conviction in 2023. State courts have also repeatedly declined to grant him a new trial.
“George Floyd’s children lost their father,” Ellison wrote. “His siblings lost their brother. His community lost a neighbor and friend. That loss is permanent and irreparable. The jury heard all the evidence. The appeals courts reviewed every claim. Justice was rendered according to our system of law.
“As the lead prosecutor whose team presented this case to a jury of 12 Minnesotans and then prevailed at every step of the appeals process, I am deeply troubled by what [the moment of silence] says about the state of our politics. I apologize to the Floyd family and to all the dedicated officers who do their jobs honorably every day.”
The Minnesota Republican party did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Democratic state lawmaker Jamie Long, a former majority leader of the Minnesota legislature, called the act “disgusting” in a post on X on Sunday.
He noted that the state’s Republicans “opened their convention with a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin. Not for those we lost to gun violence. Not for soldiers killed overseas.
“To a literal convicted murderer. Disgusting.”
