For murdering George Floyd, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 245 months in federal prison.
Chauvin was given a 252-month sentence by US District Court Senior Judge Paul Magnuson, with seven months deducted for time served.
“This sentence should send a strong message that the Justice Department stands ready to prosecute law enforcement officers who use deadly force without basis,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said. “While no amount of prison time can reverse the tragic consequences of Derek Chauvin’s violent actions, we hope that this sentence provides some small measure of justice for the families and communities impacted.”
The US attorneys requested that Derek Chauvin’s sentence be served concurrently with his 22.5-year state term in court.
In December, Chauvin entered a guilty plea to federal charges of depriving Floyd of his civil rights as part of a deal with the prosecution. If found guilty at trial, he might have been sentenced to life in jail.
He also pled guilty and admitted that, in another case, he used excessive force to violate the civil rights of a 14-year-old in 2017.
For infringing on Floyd’s civil rights, the prosecution had asked for a 25-year prison sentence, followed by five years of supervised release. His lawyer had requested twenty years.
Which prison Chauvin will reside in will be decided by the US Bureau of Prisons.
What Incident Led To Derek Chauvin’s Indictment
In the May 2020 killing of Floyd, which was captured on video and led to a national outcry over police brutality and a reckoning over racial justice in America, Chauvin was found guilty by the state of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin was sentenced in June 2021. His conviction has been appealed.
The innocent victim George Floyd was handcuffed and lying prone in the street for more than nine minutes when the video from a Minneapolis street shows Chauvin impassively kneeling on his neck and back. The man can be heard gasping for air and telling Minneapolis police, “I can’t breathe.”
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