American Scapegoat

Why the most consequential verdict in modern America got it all wrong.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, as nationwide protests surged into riots and American cities burned, the United States entered a moment of mass political hysteria unlike anything seen in generations. The public demand for a conviction of Officer Derek Chauvin was as uncompromising as it was irrational. Evidence that refuted the public narrative was ignored, standard procedures were discarded, and the criminal justice system was perverted. The soul of the nation hung in the balance.

But what if the facts didn’t line up? What if the evidence wasn’t there? What if George Floyd’s death had nothing to do with Derek Chauvin?

Former Federal Prosecutor TJ Harker reconstructs the infamous case in exacting detail, arguing with airtight reason that Chauvin did not kill George Floyd, while revealing how the criminal justice system was perverted by forces far outside the courtroom. Key questions of causation, evidence, and reasonable doubt were subordinated to the imperatives of public outrage. Prosecutors coached witnesses, outsiders threatened the Chief Medical Examiner, politicians demanded a conviction, and activists threatened to destroy Minneapolis. From the outset, the proceedings bore the marks of a foregone conclusion even though prosecutors had convincing evidence that another man was responsible for Floyd’s death.

This book is a study of the consequences of using the justice system to resolve political crises it is not intended to resolve. George Floyd’s death was complex and tragic, but it was nothing like the simplified morality play it was made out to be.

Activists, politicians, and opportunists needed Derek Chauvin to be guilty. They needed a white male law enforcement officer to be responsible for the death of an innocent black man. Having established that framework, these activists tied the conviction of Derek Chauvin to a conviction of the United States of America. The verdict: Guilty of murder, guilty of racism. But, Harker shows that Chauvin is not only not guilty, he is affirmatively innocent, while explaining how the rule of law was subverted to find Chauvin guilty nonetheless.