Wednesday morning news - April 21, 2020

Chauvin awaits sentencing after guilty verdict » Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin is now in a county jail cell awaiting sentencing. He faces up to 75 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty on all charges Tuesday afternoon.

CAHILL: We the jury in the above entitled manner as to count one, unintentional second degree murder while committing a felony, find the defendant guilty.

The jury made up of six white and six black or multiracial people came back with its verdict after about 10 hours of deliberations over two days. The jury also found Chauvin guilty of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Judge Peter Cahill said Chauvin will be sentenced in eight weeks.

Floyd family members gathered at a Minneapolis conference room could be heard cheering after the verdict. And outside the courthouse, demonstrators also celebrated.

SOUND (crowd NATS): George Floyd! George Floyd!

After the jury made its decision, President Biden called the Floyd family and said of himself and Vice President Kamala Harris—“We’re so relieved.”

Three other former police officers who were at the scene when Derek Chauvin pinned his knee to George Floyd’s neck last May will stand trial in August. They are charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

EU agency links J&J shot to rare clots, says odds favor use » Regulators in the European Union said Tuesday they’ve found a “possible link” between Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine and extremely rare blood clots. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: The European Medicines Agency has recommended adding a warning label to the vaccine. But experts at the agency also reiterated that the vaccine’s benefits far outweigh the risks.

It said blood clotting should be considered a “very rare” side effect of the vaccine.

The EMA made its determination after looking at a half-dozen cases among some 7 million Americans who have received the J&J shots.

Johnson & Johnson immediately announced it will revise its label as requested and resume vaccine shipments to Europe.

In March, EU regulators recommended adding a similar warning label to AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Senate panel scrutinizes Georgia election reform laws » The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday on voting rights, putting Georgia’s new election reform laws under the microscope.

Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams told lawmakers,

ABRAMS: Voters of color in Georgia were more likely than white voters to vote by mail for the first time in the last two election cycles.

She said Georgia Republicans knew that when they placed new rules on mail-in voting. Abrams complained that the laws shorten the window to request and return absentee ballot applications and add voter ID requirements to mail-in ballots.

The state already requires voter ID for in-person voting. Under the new rules, anyone returning a ballot by mail will have to provide their driver’s license or state issued ID number. Now voters who don’t have an ID will have other options, such as writing the last four digits of their social security number along with their date of birth on the ballot.

Republicans say they passed the new laws to address concerns about election security.

But Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin leveled this charge on Tuesday:

DURBIN: These new pieces of legislation may not involve literacy tests or counting the number of jellybeans in a jar like the original Jim Crow, but make no mistake, they are a deliberate effort to suppress voters of color.

GOP Congressman Burgess Owens of Utah, who testified at the hearing, fired back.

OWENS: True racism is this: this projection of Democratic Party on my proud race. It's called the soft bigotry of low expectations.

And he rejected the comparison to Jim Crow.

OWENS: It is disgusting and offensive to compare actual voter suppression and violence of that era that we grew up in with a state law that only asks that people show their ID.

Democrats during the hearing called for more federal oversight of state election laws.

Bill ending religious vaccine exemption now heads to Senate » And finally this morning, lawmakers in Connecticut’s state senate are set to consider a controversial bill that would end a long-standing religious exemption from vaccination requirements for kids in classrooms. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: Many Democrats in the state House said it’s time to end the religious exemption. House Majority Leader Jason Rojas said the state has seen a steady rise in parents opting out of vaccine requirements on religious grounds, and he added, “We do not know when community immunity might be compromised.”

Some Connecticut Republicans argued the bill was an overreach, stepping on the religious freedoms of thousands.

But the Democratic-controlled House passed the bill after 16 hours of sometimes fiery debate.

That action came hours after an amendment passed that grandfathered in any students with an existing religious exemption.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont has said he will sign the legislation into law, if it passes in the state Senate.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

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