Most US States have 3 degrees of Murder, - one, unequivocal as to evidence and where they have it, resulting in the death penalty. Murder 2 - the maximum is life and more leeway as to circumstantial evidence is given, Murder 3, the equivalent of our manslaughter. Most verdicts are like ours (except Scotland), guilty or not-guilty, but the concept of double jeopardy is coming into play in some states and one can be hoiked back in - which is de facto a version of not proven that the Scots use (and very sensible that is in my opinion).
As to Minneapolis, it's a city I know pretty well, having been there over 30 times as I used to do a lot of consultancy work for Cargill. The area of town where the murder took place is pretty ropey - most of the BBC shots last night were from St. Paul and not Minneapolis as they claimed - the first shots were within a cricket ball's throwing length of where I often stayed, the rather nice St Paul's Hotel - however, they are one as the Twin Cities, divided by the Mississippi, just as Budapest is two and split by the Danube.