Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The death of Mr. Floyd spurred the largest civil rights protests in decades.
People in Minneapolis and other cities gathered in reaction to the verdict on Tuesday, describing it as a legal and symbolic victory honoring the life of George Floyd.
Following the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, friends and family of George Floyd tearfully thanked the many lawyers, bystanders, jurors and protesters who they said helped to bring justice.
“Today, the tears are pure joy,” Chris Stewart, a lawyer for Mr. Floyd’s family, said at a Hilton hotel in downtown Minneapolis. “Pure joy and pure shock, because days like this don’t happen.”
President Biden praised a guilty verdict in the murder trial of the former police officer Derek Chauvin, but called it a “too rare” step to deliver “basic accountability” for Black Americans who have been killed during interactions with the police.
“It was a murder in full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see,” Mr. Biden said.
The jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of all three counts he was facing — second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter — for the same crime: pinning George Floyd’s neck to the asphalt with his knee until he stopped breathing.
The mood seemed to be summed up in a statement from former President Barack Obama: “Today, a jury did the right thing. But true justice requires much more.”