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Derek Chauvin trial: 49 percent of Trump voters disagree with guilty verdict in George Floyd murder case

In contrast, 94 percent of the voters who backed President Joe Biden in 2020 supported the guilty verdict

A new CBS News/YouGov poll found that 49 percent of former President Donald Trump's supporters disagreed with the guilty verdict for former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of George Floyd's murder. 

The silver lining in the poll results was that over half of Trump voters -- 51 percent to be exact -- agreed with the jury's decision. On the other hand, 49 percent of participants in the poll who backed Trump in 2020 disagreed with the guilty verdict. In contrast, 94 percent of the voters who backed President Joe Biden in 2020 supported the guilty verdict. Only six percent disagreed with the conviction.

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Among the Republicans who took the poll, 54 percent agreed with the decision, while 46 percent felt that the guilty verdict was inaccurate. As was expected, an overwhelming percentage of Democratic respondents backed the guilty verdict - a mere 10 percent disagreed with the jury's verdict while 90 percent felt that the conviction was justified. Among Independent respondents, seventy-five percent agreed with the verdict, while 25 percent disagreed.

About 75 percent of all the poll takers said that the jury made the right decision in convicting Chauvin, while 25 percent disagreed with the decision.

Chauvin found guilty

Former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin, who was charged with the brutal murder of George Floyd, was found guilty of all charges in the trial, as per the verdict delivered by the jury. The sequestered jury comprised six White and six Black or multiracial individuals considering the gravity of the case which has been deemed as a hate crime. At the time of his verdict, Chauvin was facing the charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the killing of Floyd.

The verdict has caused immense relief among people across the world as social media is flooded with enthusiastic reactions from overwhelmed Black citizens, who believe justice has been served. People gathered in front of the court as well as the site of Floyd's death hours before the verdict was announced. 
 
On May 25, 2020, Chauvin, along with three other officers, arrested Floyd on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a shop. Floyd did not resist his arrest, but he reportedly resisted getting into the police car and fell down. While Floyd was handcuffed and fell on the ground with his face down, Chauvin placed his knee on Floyd's neck and pressed down hard. He did not release despite desperate appeals from Floyd, who repeatedly said, "I can't breathe" and "Please". The crowd also frantically requested Chauvin to release Floyd from under his knee, but Chauvin did not budge until Floyd became motionless.

Comforting that over half of the GOP voters agree

The poll was discussed on CBS' 'Face The Nation,' a screengrab of which was shared by Vox journalist Aaron Rupar on Twitter, with the caption, "46 percent of Republicans think the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict is wrong."

Most of the people who came across the screengrab commented that they were not surprised by the figures displayed on the screen. While some sarcastically opined that they expected the figure to be lower, others chose to focus on the positive side of things. "I'm actually surprised it's less than half," one of them said, while another wrote, "A majority of Republicans agree with it. No matter your affiliation as a political leader, more of your voters think he’s guilty. When majorities of Democrats, Republicans and Independents all agree on something important—in a country as politically divided as the United States—that’s the headline."

A third quipped, "Honestly lower than expected. Give it a few months of disinformation and it will be higher..." The next said, "It's actually a bit comforting that over half of the GOP voters agree with the verdict, given the last 4 years." One more commented, "That’s positive news that 54% knew the verdict was correct. We have to refrain from focusing on negativity!"