Minneapolis – Former police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted last year of murdering George Floyd, was sentenced on Thursday to 21 years in prison on separate federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights during the deadly May 2020 arrest, with the judge calling the actions unconscionable.
Chauvin, who pleaded guilty to the federal charges in December, is already serving a sentence of 22-1/2 years in a Minnesota prison for Floyd’s murder after a trial in state court last year.
The federal sentence will run concurrently and will see Chauvin moved to a federal prison.
U.S. district judge Paul Magnuson announced the sentence in St Paul, Minnesota, saying he was crediting Chauvin for seven months already served in state prison, removing those from the 21-year federal sentence.
His federal prison sentence is due to be followed by five years of supervised release.
The judge called Chauvin’s actions offensive and unconscionable, according to notes shared with media outlets from a reporter in one of the courtroom’s limited seats.
“To put your knee on another person’s neck until they expire is wrong, and thus you need to be substantially punished,” Magnuson said.
The 46-year-old Chauvin, who is white, admitted he violated Floyd’s right not to face “unreasonable seizure” by kneeling on the handcuffed black man’s neck for more than nine minutes in a murder captured on mobile phone video.
Floyd’s death led to protests in many cities in the United States and around the world against police brutality and racism.
The judge also ordered Chauvin to pay restitution in an amount yet to be determined.
Chauvin’s decision to plead guilty averted a second criminal trial for him, but almost certainly means he will spend more time behind bars.
(Reuters)
