ST. PAUL, Minn — A white Minneapolis police officer whose murder of a black man outside a grocery store sparked protests around the world was sentenced Thursday to 21 years in federal prison, in a case that indicated a new willingness to hold police officers criminally liable. to be charged with misconduct.
The former officer, Derek Chauvin, 46, was convicted of using excessive force against both George Floyd, the man who died in the encounter, and a 14-year-old boy, also Black, who was injured by an unrelated person, though similar incident.
Subtracting the time already served, Mr. Chauvin 20 years and five months, near the lower end of the 20 to 25 year range prescribed by sentencing guidelines. His federal and state sentences must be served simultaneously.
“I really don’t know why you did what you did, but to put your knee on someone else’s neck until they die is just wrong, and you should be severely punished for that behavior,” Judge Paul Magnuson said. US District Court in St. Paul said when imposing the sentence. “You absolutely destroyed the lives of three other junior officers,” who were also involved, the judge added.
Mr Chauvin’s meeting with Mr Floyd in May 2020 became a stark example of police brutality and fueled demands for racial equality in hundreds of cities. While attempting to arrest Mr Floyd for passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a supermarket, Mr Chauvin held Mr Floyd to the street for more than nine minutes, using one knee to bend his neck down. while Mr Floyd protested, “I can’t breathe.” Minneapolis police initially claimed he was killed in a “medical incident.”
In the federal plea deal, Mr Chauvin admitted that he had used excessive force against Mr Floyd and, in a similar incident in 2017, a teenager named John Pope, whose mother reported assaulting her. While Mr. Pope “made no aggressive moves” toward the officers who responded, according to the agreement, Mr. Chauvin repeatedly hit him with a flashlight and held him with one knee for more than 15 minutes.
“I was treated as if I wasn’t human at the hands of Derek Chauvin,” Mr Pope said during the hearing in a St. Paul courtroom on Thursday. “He made a choice and didn’t care about the outcome. By the grace of God I have lived to see another day.”
Mr. Pope said he tried his best to get good grades and planned to go to college before meeting Mr. Chauvin nearly killed him and left him feeling powerless.
Philonise Floyd, Mr. Floyd’s brother, urged the court to give Mr. Chauvin the maximum sentence. “I haven’t really slept because of the nightmares I constantly have of hearing my brother beg and beg for his life over and over,” he said.
Prosecutors also argued for Mr Chauvin to receive the maximum sentence, in part because he pleaded guilty in two meetings.
“He wasn’t a rookie,” said LeeAnn K. Bell, an assistant attorney in the US. “He wasn’t a new police officer. He knew what his education was. He admitted before this court that he knew what he was doing was wrong and he did it anyway.”
Mr Chauvin, who has made few public comments since his arrest, also addressed the court, although he did not apologize for his actions.
Both he and his attorney, Eric J. Nelson, sought to portray Mr. Chauvin as a victim of the prevailing political winds. “Your Honor, I recognize the difficult and unpleasant task of this case – it must be very difficult to follow legal standards in a charged political environment,” Mr Chauvin said.
He wished Mr Pope “a good relationship with your mother” and the chance to “get the best possible education to lead a productive and fulfilling life”. He told Mr Floyd’s children, “I wish them all the best in their lives and that they receive excellent guidance to become great adults.”
Carolyn Pawlenty, Mr. Chauvin’s mother, spoke on behalf of her son, just as she did when he was convicted in the state trial. Citing his 20 years of service with the Minneapolis Police Department, she said many of its members had “failed to support their own,” a clear reference to peers’ condemnation of her son’s actions and testimony against him. .
She said her son had received thousands of messages of support, enough to fill a room in her house.
Understand the trials and tribulations that come from the death of George Floyd
The plea deal suggested that Mr. Chauvin’s federal sentence would be about the same length as the state sentence, 20 to 25 years, giving him the opportunity to do his time in a federal prison, where he was less likely to encounter people he had help convict when he was an officer.
Three other officers took part in the fatal arrest of Mr. Floyd: Two rookies, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, and a more experienced officer, Tou Thao, who, along with Mr. Chauvin arrived on the scene to provide reinforcements. Bystander video of the encounter went viral and all four officers were quickly fired.
They also facing federal civil rights charges In addition to the state murder charge, a move Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities, said was more than a practical safeguard against acquittals or successful appeals with the state court.
“It was the federal government that made a statement that this matter is nationally important,” he said. “And it was also a conviction for something beyond what we saw in the state — it was about the deprivation of civil rights, not just the murder of George Floyd.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the state attorney general, said it was appropriate that Mr. Chauvin also face federal civil rights issues. “Federal prosecutors took this case because it was not a typical crime: it was a deliberate deprivation of life and liberty punishable under federal law,” he said in a statement.
While Mr Chauvin was first charged by the state, his three colleagues were… convicted on federal civil rights charges in February, before their state trial. Federal prosecutors have demanded a sentence of approximately five to six years for Mr Lane, the only officer to question Mr. Floyd’s long-standing restraint, and a “significantly higher” sentence, although not as harsh as Mr Chauvin’s. , for the other two officers.
mr. Lane pleaded guilty on a state charge of second-degree manslaughter and is expected to be sentenced in September; prosecutors have demanded three years. Mr Kueng and Mr Thao are expected to face charges in October on murder and manslaughter charges.
mr. Chauvin has been incarcerated in Minnesota state prison since his murder conviction, largely confined to administrative segregation. “I sympathize with you, Mr. Chauvin, for the circumstances to which you have been confined since your arrest,” Judge Magnuson said. He said that Mr. Chauvin will be released under surveillance for five years after completing his prison sentence.