MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters): A judge has sentenced former police officer Derek Chauvin to 22-1/2 years in prison over murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd.
On April 20, a 12-member jury found Chauvin guilty on all three counts he faced after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, including bystanders, police officials and medical experts. The charges were second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The rare verdict against a police officer is considered a milestone in the fraught racial history of the United States and a rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of Black Americans.
In a confrontation captured on video, Chauvin, a white veteran of the police force, pushed his knee into the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, for more than 9 minutes on May 25, 2020.
Chauvin and three fellow officers were attempting to arrest Floyd, accused of using a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a grocery store. Floyd’s death led to protests in the United States and abroad about excessive use of force by police against people of colour.
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Moreover, at the White House, US President Joe Biden, who has spoken several times with the Floyd family, said the sentence seemed appropriate. Both Floyd’s brother Rodney and his nephew Brandon Williams criticized the sentence as a “slap on the wrist.”
“We were served a life sentence,” Williams said outside the courthouse. “We can’t get George back.”
Before the sentence was handed down, Floyd’s brothers told the court of their anguish, Chauvin’s mother insisted on her son’s innocence, and Chauvin himself offered condolences to the Floyd family.
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said it was important to recognize the pain of the Floyd family.
He acknowledged the global notoriety of the case only to say it would not sway him.
“I’m not basing my sentence on public opinion,” Cahill said. “I’m not basing it on the attempt to send any messages. The job of a trial court judge is to apply the law to specific facts and to deal with individual cases.”
In a 22-page sentencing memorandum, Cahill gave weight to prosecution arguments that Chauvin acted with cruelty and abused his position of authority, aggravating factors that allowed him to give a harsher sentence than would be indicated by state sentencing guidelines for first-time offenders.
The hearing began with prosecutors asking several members of Floyd’s family to address the court. Floyd’s 7-year-old daughter Gianna was first, appearing in a video recording.
