A US federal judge on Thursday sentenced Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, telling the former Minneapolis police officer that what he did was “just wrong” and “offensive.”
District Judge Paul Magnuson sharply criticized Chauvin for his actions on May 25, 2020, when he pinned Floyd to the sidewalk outside a Minneapolis corner store for more than nine minutes as he lay dying.
“I really don’t know why he did what he did,” Magnuson said. “Putting your knee on a person’s neck until they die is just wrong. Your behavior is wrong and offensive.’
Chauvin pleaded guilty to the federal charges in December.
Magnuson, who oversaw the federal trial and convictions of three other officers at the scene earlier this year, blamed Chauvin alone for what happened. Chauvin was the most senior officer and dismissed one of the officers’ questions about whether Floyd should be turned over.
Chauvin is due in court in Minneapolis in June 2021. He will serve a 21-year sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights, along with 22-and-a-half years for murder and manslaughter. (Court TV/The Associated Press)
“You completely destroyed the lives of three young officers by taking command of the scene,” he said.
However, Magnuson’s sentence was on the lower end of the 20 to 25 years required in the plea agreement, in which he will serve the federal sentence at the same time he serves his 22-and-a-half-year sentence on state charges of manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. murder.
Because of differences in parole conditions in the state and federal systems, that means Chauvin will serve slightly more time behind bars than he would have with the state sentence alone. He will also serve his time in the federal system, where he may be safer and may be held under fewer restrictions than in the state system.
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, asked for 20 years in prison, saying Chauvin is remorseful and will make it clear in court. But Chauvin, in brief remarks, did not issue a direct apology or expression of remorse to Floyd’s family.
Instead, he told the family that he wished Floyd’s children “all the best in their lives” and that they had “excellent guidance to become good adults.”
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