Derek Chauvin trial: judge grants request to add third-degree murder charge

Reinstated count against ex-officer who kneeled on George Floyd's neck gives jury another means of finding him guilty of murder, experts say

A judge has granted prosecutors' request to add a third-degree murder count against a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death, offering jurors an additional option for conviction and resolving an issue that might have delayed his trial for months.

The Hennepin county judge Peter Cahill reinstated the charge on Thursday after the former officer, Derek Chauvin, failed to get appellate courts to block it. Cahill had earlier rejected the charge as not warranted by the circumstances of Floyd's death, but an appellate court ruling in an unrelated case established new grounds.