Chauvin was not expressive as Judge Peter Cahill announced his conviction on charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The verdicts were read a day after jurors began their deliberations.

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Video of Chauvin holding his knee on or near Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes last May, while Floyd was prone and handcuffed, spurred months of protests and reanimated the movement opposing police brutality against Black men.

Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Third-degree murder has a maximum penalty of 25 years. Second-degree manslaughter has a maximum of 10 years. Sentencing guidelines call for sentences short of the maximum.

Cahill said that sentencing would take place in eight weeks. After the verdicts were read, Chauvin was handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom.

“This case is a turning point in American history for accountability of law enforcement and sends a clear message we hope is heard clearly in every city and every state,” Ben Crump, an attorney for Floyd’s family, said in a statement.

President Joe Biden, in a phone call with Floyd’s family that Crump recorded and posted online, pledged to accomplish meaningful police reform and told them that “nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now there’s some justice.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was also on the phone call, said: “We are going to make something good come out of this tragedy.”

Chauvin’s high-profile trial began in March and concluded on Monday in a Minneapolis courthouse fortified with barbed wire.

Chauvin’s high-profile trial began in March and concluded on Monday in a Minneapolis courthouse fortified with barbed wire.

The case has been at the forefront of the anti-racist movement that gained steam during former President Donald Trump’s term in office and ignited around the country in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The video of Floyd’s death became a vivid illustration to many of the way Black men are often treated at the hands of law enforcement. Whether Chauvin was found guilty or acquitted was widely seen as a test of America’s system of justice.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who oversaw the prosecution, said at a press conference that “George Floyd mattered. He was loved by his family and his friends.”

“He mattered because he was a human being, and there is no way you can turn away from that reality,” Ellison said. He said that the verdict is not justice in itself, but that it is “accountability, which is the first step toward justice.”

After it was announced that the jury would deliver its verdict on Tuesday afternoon, Biden canceled planned remarks on an infrastructure proposal he is attempting to pass in Congress. He was expected to address the verdict later Tuesday.

Top Democrats in Congress cheered the decision. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement that the “guilty verdict serves as an official proclamation of what so many of us have known for nearly a year: George Floyd was murdered by an officer who was sworn to protect and serve.”