Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years for the murder of George Floyd | Black Lives Matter News

Derek Chauvin, former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing a white man George Floyd, who was black, was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison on Friday.

Chauvin was 45 years old condemned in April there was an unintentional second-degree murder, a third-degree murder and a second-degree murder against Floyd’s neck for 9 and a half minutes for squeezing his knee for 46 minutes Floyd said he couldn’t breathe and took a deep breath. .

Spectator video Floyd’s arrest on a corner store for allegedly passing fake $ 20 bills protests it caused widespread violence in and around Minneapolis and beyond.

Court justification

After a moving testimony from Floyd’s family and Chauvin’s mother on Friday, along with a brief condolence from Chauvin himself, Judge Peter Cahill said the sentence was not based on emotion, sympathy or public opinion.

“I’m not going to try to be deep or clear, because it’s not the right time,” Cahill said, explaining that his reasoning would be explained in a 22-page memoir.

“I don’t base the sentence on public opinion. I’m not based on trying to send a message. The job of the trial court is to apply the law to specific facts and to deal with individual cases. “

Prosecutors sought a 30-year sentence for Chauvin, who was convicted of second-degree murder. The Minnesota sentencing guidelines recommend that Chauvin be sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison because he has no criminal record.

Worst factors

The 22 1/2 year sentence is 10 years longer than the state guidelines and Cahill justified the longer sentence by citing “serious factors”.

With good behavior, Chauvin could be released on parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence, which is about 15 years.

In his April ruling, Cahill said prosecutors proved there were four aggravating factors that would allow him to serve a longer prison sentence than ordered by the sentencing instructions.

The judge admitted that Chauvin had abused his position of trust and authority; That Floyd had been treated with a special cruelty by kneeling in his neck for more than nine minutes, even though Floyd said “I can’t breathe”; that he committed the crime with three other officers within a group; and that the murder was committed in front of children.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson asked the court to consider not only the aggravating factors, but also the mitigating ones. Chauvin did not enter this trial as a “career criminal,” but he lives an “honorable life,” Nelson said.

‘Unusual unusual phrase’

“For a police officer, spending 10 more years than the guidelines for this crime because of these serious situations is a rather harsh and unusually unusual phrase,” Al Jazeera reporter John Hendren said from Minneapolis.

“It’s very rare to accuse a police officer of murder. It’s even rarer to convict one, ”Hendren added.

“It’s the longest sentence ever imposed on a police officer in the state of Minnesota,” said family lawyer Ben Crump Floyd after the verdict ended. “But that shouldn’t be the exception when the police kill a black person as a result of brutality. It should be the rule.”

Before Crump spoke, Al Sharpton, the head of civil rights, said the phrase Al Sharpton “is not justice. Justice is George Floyd would be alive.”

Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University, told the Associated Press that 11 illegal officers, including Chauvin, have been convicted of murder since 2005 on guard duty. The nine sentences previously punished ranged from Chauvin to six years to nine months, to a life behind the bar. The median was 15 years old.

Recent appeals

The prosecutor asked several members of Floyd’s family to appear in court. Floyd’s 7-year-old daughter Gianna was the first to appear in a video recording.

“I wonder about him all the time,” Chauvin said in the video as he sat in front of the court in a gray suit and tie with blue masks covering his nose and mouth. “My dad always helped me brush my teeth.” Asked what he would say if he saw her again, he said, “I’m going to miss you and I love you.”

Floyd’s brother Terrence Floyd addressed Chauvin directly in a statement on the impact of the victims on Friday.

“What went through your mind when you had a knee on my brother’s neck?” he asked. He told the judge he wanted a maximum sentence. “We don’t want to see more slaps on the wrist. We have already overcome that. “

Chauvin’s mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, told the judge that she would always believe her son was innocent and that the two happiest moments of his life were when Chauvin gave birth and his police plaque was placed on him when he entered the Minneapolis Police Department.

“Derek has repeatedly played with the events of that day in his head,” he said, his voice sometimes worried. “I’ve seen the toll he’s taken. I think a long sentence won’t do Derek well. When you condemn my son, you will punish me too. “

Chauvin himself then addressed the court, saying that they were “additional legal issues” and could not give a full statement.

“But very briefly, though, I want to offer my condolences to the Floyd family,” he said. “There will be some other information that would be interesting in the future and I hope things will give you some peace of mind. Thank you.”