The Derek Chauvin trial, explained

Debunking misinformation about George Floyd

View this email in your browser  This week:  Fact-checking the Derek Chauvin trial … Tucker Carlson's Pants on Fire about vaccines … Getting to herd immunity in Texas … What Pete Buttigieg said about racist highways … Fact-checking Iran from Canada A weekly note from the editor-in-chief of    Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is taken into custody as his attorney Eric Nelson, left, watches. (AP) The guilty verdict against Derek Chauvin, explained After weeks of testimony and a year of reckoning, a jury in Minneapolis convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin of two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter for the killing of George Floyd, who died gasping for air while Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nine minutes. The verdict followed testimony from 45 witnesses in one of the most high-profile court cases in decades. Floyd's killing on May 25, 2020, spurred a summer of nationwide protests over racial justice and police brutality.  The jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Each murder charge carries a presumptive sentence of 12-and-a-half years in prison, while the manslaughter charge carries a four-year presumptive penalty, under Minnesota state sentencing guidelines. Chauvin could spend decades in prison. Chauvin was taken into custody. His sentencing will come in two months. The video of Floyd's death, captured by then-17-year-old Darnella Frazier, was central to the case against Chauvin. Special prosecutor Jerry Blackwell played it for the jury on the trial's first day and urged them to "believe your eyes that it's a homicide." Other evidence included autopsy reports and witness testimony from medical experts who said Floyd died from a lack of oxygen. Several use-of-force experts who said Chauvin's actions against Floyd were excessive. Read more about the specifics of Chauvin's convictions. >>> PolitiFact has been fact-checking claims made about the trial on social media as it progressed. Here are some of our key findings: George Floyd did not die of a drug overdose. One Facebook post claimed, "Toxicology report was made public by the MN prosecution revealing the cause of George Floyd's death was a fentanyl overdose." But we rated that False. (Twice.) Two autopsy reports said Floyd died of homicide, not a drug overdose. The Hennepin County medical examiner found fentanyl in Floyd's system, but the autopsy said the cause of his death was "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law-enforcement subdual restraint, and neck compression."  What George Floyd said about drugs as he died wasn't clear and is open to interpretation. Chauvin's attorneys suggested that the video showed Floyd talking about drugs. One witness initially agreed with the defense that Floyd appeared to say, "I ate too many drugs." But after the prosecution showed a longer clip, the same witness amended his statement and said, "I believe Mr. Floyd was saying, 'I ain't do no drugs.'" Read our report >> The video portraying Chauvin's actions is an accurate depiction of events. Some social media commenters tried to undermine the video that captured Chauvin's actions, but when we looked into specific claims, we found them spurious. One said that Chauvin's knee was "not on (the) neck of George Floyd." We rated that False. Another video claimed there was no struggle because Chauvin's hand was in his pocket. We rated that False, too. Chauvin's hand was not in his pocket, although some screen grabs showed the color of his gloves blending in with his pants. — Bill McCarthy Share Tweet Forward The Latest from PolitiFact Is Texas close to herd immunity? Gov. Greg Abbott said the Lone Star State is close to herd immunity, but the facts say otherwise. PolitiFact Texas rated his claim False. About 5.8 million people, or 20% of the state population, have been fully vaccinated as of April 12. The total number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 is not known, and estimates vary. The herd immunity threshold is understood to range between 60-80%.   Did Wisconsin Republicans hold up COVID-19 testing? State representative Janet Bewley said the GOP held up COVID-19 testing in the Badger State, but PolitiFact Wisconsin rated that Mostly False. The limitations on testing in Wisconsin have been attributed to lack of available supplies, not lack of funding. The phrasing implies Republicans blocked or delayed a specific bill that caused delays, and that's not what happened.   Tucker Carlson's Pants-on-Fire vaccine claim. Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested to his millions of viewers that the COVID-19 vaccines might not work: "Maybe it doesn't work, and they're simply not telling you that." We rated that Pants on Fire! The proof that vaccines work includes a lengthy regulatory process and vaccine trials that happened around the world. Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help   Yes, I support PolitiFact! Make a tax-deductible donation to make this message go away. Pete Buttigieg is right: Racism shaped some urban highways Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently kicked off a social media frenzy when he said that racism has sometimes been a part of highway planning and construction. "There is racism physically built into some of our highways, and that's why the jobs plan has specifically committed to reconnect some of the communities that were divided by these dollars," Buttigieg said during the interview. He was referring to President Joe Biden's proposal known as the American Jobs Plan, which would provide funding for various types of infrastructure, including roads, highways and bridges. Three days after the interview, Young America's Foundation, a conservative group, tweeted Buttigieg's statement with the mocking caption, "This is not parody." Replies flooded in, accusing the group's tweet of being ignorant of history.  We reached out to experts on highways and urban history and found wide support for Buttigieg's assertion, although other factors often played a role as well. Even in cases where it's hard to document whether racist thinking explicitly drove highway construction, the existence of divided and weakened neighborhoods in so many cities has been "racist in effect," said Earl Swift, author of "The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways." We rated Buttigieg's statement True.  Our in-depth report covers the history of highway planning in U.S. urban areas; Black neighborhoods scarred by highways; the legacy of highway planner Robert Moses; controversial highways in white neighborhoods; and the efforts of neighborhoods to fight back. Read the full report on our website. >>> — Louis Jacobson  Journalist Christiane Amanpour will join PolitiFact's virtual event in May Christiane Amanpour is one of the most insightful voices in media across the world, and I'm excited that she's agreed to join our first-ever virtual fact-checking festival, United Facts of America. Christiane is CNN's chief international anchor of the network's award-winning, flagship global affairs program "Amanpour," which also airs on PBS. Register today.   We're so excited to welcome Christiane that we decided to make it easier for loyal PolitiFact readers like you to attend. You can use the promo code "FACTS2021" for $15 off the ticket as a way to celebrate our newly announced guest. (Be sure to click on the blue "Enter Promo Code" link at the top of the page when you go to select your ticket.) Fact-checking the movies! It's almost time for the Academy Awards, and that means it's time for MovieFact, PolitiFact's reports that tell you if the movie you just saw — that claimed to be based on a real story or historical events — was really accurate.  This year, we fact-checked three movies that are up for an Oscar for Best Picture. The fact-checked nominees are: (Envelope please!) The Trial of the Chicago 7 >>>  A group of activists go on trial after traveling to Chicago to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Sasha Baron Cohen stars as hippie activist Abbie Hoffman. Mank >>>  Herman Mankiewicz, aka "Mank," writes a searing takedown of publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst. His movie script becomes the legendary film "Citizen Kane." Gary Oldman stars in the title role. Judas and the Black Messiah >>> The Chicago police, aided by the FBI, launch a sting to take down the leadership of the Black Panther Party in 1969. Fred Hampton, played by Daniel Kaluuya, is in their crosshairs. We hope you'll read our reports, but be warned, there are MANY spoilers! You might want to watch the movies first. In other fact-checking news A fact-check recently led to a rare retraction from Iran's supreme leader. The ayatollah and state media walked back claims about the size of Iran's economy after two fact-checks by FactNameh went viral. FactNameh is an Iranian fact-checking group based in Canada. It has been blocked by Iranian internet service providers since August 2018, months after its first fact check of Khamenei in March of that year. The fact-checking was prompted by a claim Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei made during a March 20 speech. Seeking to rebut claims about Iran's struggling economy, the supreme leader cited statistics from the World Bank that he claimed ranked Iran's economy 18th largest in the world. The fact-checkers knew that was suspect. "(The economy) is probably the worst thing in Iran, and he's saying 'Oh, it's actually good," said Farhad Souzanchi, Factnameh editor. "For the leader to say this was very strange." Read more about fact-checking Iran and the true size of the nation's economy. >>> — Harrison Mantas, International Fact-checking Network Quick links to more fact-checks & reports    What Rep. Maxine Waters said about the Chauvin trial and why it matters   Censorship or misinformation? DeSantis and YouTube spar over COVID roundtable takedown   What is the Biden administration saying about the refugee admissions cap for 2021?   Update: Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes   What Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams and Georgia senators said about a MLB boycott Do you smell smoke?  Here's your Pants on Fire fact-check of the week:  Japan's prime minister met with Vice President Kamala Harris holding a Trump 2024 sign and wearing a red baseball cap. This did not happen. See what else we've rated Pants on Fire this week.  Have questions or ideas for our coverage? Send me an email at holan@politifact.com. Put "Fact-checking" in the subject line. Thanks for reading! Angie Drobnic Holan  PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief  Send this link to your friends so they can sign up for this email! Copyright © 2021 PolitiFact, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website, attended one of our events, or communicated with us. 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