...Since the investigation and prosecution of this case began last May, everyone involved has pursued one goal: justice. We pursued justice wherever it led. When I became the lead prosecutor for the case, I asked for time and patience to review the facts, gather evidence, and prosecute for the murder of George Floyd to the fullest extent the law allowed. ...That long, hard, painstaking work has culminated today. I would not call today’s verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration. But it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice. And now, the cause of justice is in your hands. And when I say your hands, I mean the hands of the people of the United States.

George Floyd mattered. ...His death shocked the conscience of our community, our country, the whole world. ...He mattered because he was a human being. And there is no way we can turn away from that reality.

The people who stopped and raised their voices on May 25, 2020, were a bouquet of humanity—a phrase I stole from my friend Jerry Blackwell—a bouquet of humanity. Old, young, men and women, black and white; a man from the neighborhood just walking to get a drink; a child going to buy a snack with her cousin; an off-duty firefighter on her way to a community garden; brave young women—teenagers— who pressed ‘record’ on their cell phones.

Why did they stop? They didn’t know George Floyd. They didn’t know he had a beautiful family. They didn’t know he had been a great athlete, and they didn’t know he was a proud father or that he had people in his life who loved him. They stopped and raised their voices and they even challenged authority because they saw his humanity. They stopped and they raised their voices because they knew that what they were seeing was wrong...and they were right.

—Keith Ellison, Minnesota Attorney General, on April 20, 2021, following guilty verdicts rendered by the jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.