Chauvin, who pleaded guilty to the federal charges in December, is already serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence in a Minnesota prison for Floyd’s murder following a trial in state court last year. The federal sentence will be concurrent and Chauvin will be transferred to a federal prison.
US District Judge Paul Magnuson announced the sentence in St. Paul, Minnesota, saying he credited Chauvin for the seven months already served in state prison, removing them from the 21-year federal sentence. His federal prison sentence is to be followed by five years of supervised release.
Chauvin’s decision to plead guilty saved him from a second criminal trial, but almost certainly means he will spend more time behind bars.
Chauvin, 46, who is white, admitted to violating Floyd’s right not to suffer ‘unreasonable seizure’ by kneeling on the handcuffed black man’s neck for more than 9 minutes in a murder captured on video mobile phone. Floyd’s death has sparked protests in many cities across the United States and around the world once morest police brutality and racism.
As part of his deal with prosecutors, Chauvin also pleaded guilty to violating the rights of John Pope Jr, who was 14 when Chauvin hit his head with a flashlight before kneeling on his neck during a a violent arrest several years before Floyd’s murder.
“I feel like he took my joy away from me,” Pope said in court in a victim impact statement, CBS News Minnesota affiliate WCCO reported.
Philonise Floyd also addressed the court ahead of sentencing, saying her brother George Floyd’s cries of agony haunted her nightmares. He asked the judge to sentence Chauvin to life in prison.
Chauvin spoke to say he recognized the difficulty of the court dealing with a case in a “politically charged environment”, and that he wanted the children of Pope and Floyd to have productive and fulfilling lives, WCCO reported. Chauvin did not offer an apology, local media reported.
At his state trial last year, Chuavin was found guilty of second degree intentional murder, third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. People sentenced to prison for crimes in Minnesota are usually paroled following serving two-thirds of their sentence.
Chauvin’s guilty plea to the civil rights charges came as part of an agreement with prosecutors that he faced a 20-25 year federal prison sentence. In that agreement, he admitted for the first time that he was responsible for Floyd’s death. Federal prosecutors had asked Magnuson to sentence Chauvin to 25 years.
Floyd might be seen in the videos pleading for his life before falling motionless in the road under Chauvin’s knee.
Chauvin was helping three fellow officers arrest Floyd in May 2020, suspecting the latter of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. These three people – Tou Thao, J. Alexander Keung and Thomas Lane – were found guilty in federal court in February of violating Floyd’s rights. They have not yet received a sentencing date.
A medical examiner has determined that the police restraint prevented Floyd from being able to breathe.
