Scroll down this page to see the following explanation of the three charges:

How the three charges work

"But basically, the charges all covered different legal definitions of what happened in the murder of George Floyd. They didn't work in an escalating way, like there were backups if the most serious ones failed. It was always possible that Chauvin could have been found guilty of all, some or none of the charges.

"As this CNN breakdown explains, , where the charges differed was how they interpreted Chauvin's state of mind at the time of the murder.

"The third-degree murder charge alleged that Chauvin had a "depraved mind, without regard for human life". The second-degree unintentional murder charge asked the jury to consider that Chauvin killed Floyd while trying to apply unlawful force to him (they didn't have to consider whether Chauvin intended to kill Floyd). And the second-degree manslaughter charge alleged that Chauvin caused Floyd's death through "culpable negligence", by not doing things like putting Floyd in the recovery position or providing medical care for Floyd before paramedics arrived."