Former Attorney General William Barr declined to accept a guilty plea from the former Minneapolis police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd. Three days after Floyd’s death and the graphic footage of it, Derek Chauvin had seen the evidence against him and had agreed to a third-degree murder charge that would have sent him to federal prison for at least 10 years, The New York Times reports. Minneapolis officials had organized a press conference. But Chauvin wanted protection from federal civil rights charges, and Barr rejected the tradeoff, believing it would be seen as too lenient and had arrived too early in the investigation process. Chauvin’s trial is set to begin March 8.
