With the trial of Derek Chauvin – the former Minneapolis police officer on trial on charges of murder and manslaughter over the death of George Floyd – an old satirical article reclaiming that Chauvin was “murdered in prison” on social media . Although the allegation comes from a website that regularly publishes “death fraud” and describes itself as a parody, Facebook users in March 2021 take the headline seriously.
The satirical article, published on August 19, 2020, with the caption: “Police officer who killed George Floyd in prison”, is available here on the website “Conservative Tears”.
Conservative Tears describes itself on its “About” page (here) as “a subsidiary of the” America’s Last Line of Defense “network of parody, satire and nonsense,” and contains the following disclaimer: “Everything on this site is “It’s not a lie and it’s not fake news because it’s not real. If you believe it’s real, you should have your head examined.”
The Chauvin article is filed under the “Death Hoax” category, which also contains false death stories for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Conservative activist Candace Owens, Duck Dynasty television star Phil Robertson, and others (here).
The satirical Facebook page ‘America – Love It Or Leave It’, another subsidiary of America’s Last Line of Defense, shared the link on March 8, 2021 (here), the same day a Minnesota judge began judging to sit in Chauvin’s trial on Floyd’s fateful sitting. arrested last May (here).
The remarks of those who apparently take the claim seriously include: ‘They had to have him segregated. They knew it would happen, ” ‘Where was his protection? His rights? “And ‘Because he was a policeman.’
Chauvin was released from prison last October on a $ 1 million bond and is being tried in a courtroom in the Hennepin County Government Center, a tower in downtown Minneapolis, now surrounded by barbed wire fences and concrete barriers (here).
Chauvin, who is white, was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department the day after the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man. He pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and manslaughter.
After appearing in court this week, he is alive, as seen in a Reuters slideshow of courtroom sketches as well as live coverage of the trial presented here by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Reuters reached out to Chauvin’s attorney Eric J. Nelson, who confirmed by email that his client was “very much alive.”
VERDICT
Satire. An article claiming that Derek Chauvin was murdered in prison was satire.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.