I am thinking Chauvin was innocent. Once the tapes came out, you can easily tell the use of the force was justified, along with the autopsy report that showed the amount of drugs Floyd was on definitely played a role in his death.
If this didn't happen during an election season, this wouldn't be as "groundbreaking" an incident that the media made this out to be. I'm sorry but a guy dying while resisting arrest and high on enough opiates to kill a horse doesn't merit national coverage. This whole story was clearly just to rile up the Democrats' base and provide easy photo ops for Democrat politicians, as was shown by the ridiculous funeral ceremony which saw Floyd buried in a gold casket with high-profile Democrat politicians in attendance. This was all political theater and the idiot sheep took the bait. This was clearly all curated to push a narrative of "evil, racist, white republicans creating a system of racism that kills innocent black men" that the Democrat heroes will save everybody from.
As to what the ruling will be? I am saying he is innocent of murder charges but might catch a manslaughter conviction. I am thinking that is why it took almost a year for a pretty cut-and-dry case to have a ruling, because they wanted to wait for tensions to cool before making a ruling that they know will clearly cause riots. Although, it doesn't matter what the ruling will be, even if Chauvin gets the death penalty, far-left fanatics will riot because his death wasn't painful enough - expect blood to be shed in far-left cities like Portland and San Francisco.