ST. PAUL, Minn. — A white Minneapolis police officer whose killing of a black man outside a convenience store sparked protests around the world was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison Thursday in a case that signals a new willingness to prosecute police officers for wrongdoing behavior.
The former police officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of using excessive force under color of law against both George Floyd, who died in the confrontation, and a 14-year-old boy, also black, who was injured in an unrelated, though similar, incident.
Deducting time already served, Mr. Chauvin’s sentence totaled just over 20 years, near the lower end of the 20- to 25-year range prescribed by sentencing guidelines. The federal and state sentences must be served concurrently.
The verdict marks the likely end of Mr Chauvin’s legal saga. He was convicted of Mr. Floyd’s murder in a dramatic state court trial last year and sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison, a sentence he is appealing. Thursday’s ruling came in a separate federal civil rights case in which Mr. Chauvin pleaded guilty, severely limiting his right to challenge the conviction.
“I really don’t know why he did what he did, but to put your knee on another person’s neck until they’re dying is just wrong, and that behavior should be severely punished,” Judge Paul Magnuson of U.S. District Court in St. Louis. , Paul said at sentencing. “You completely destroyed the lives of three other young officers” who were also involved, the judge added.
Mr. Chauvin’s encounter with Mr. Floyd in May 2020 became a stark example of police brutality and sparked calls for racial equality in hundreds of cities. During an attempt to arrest Mr. Floyd for passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store, Mr. Chauvin pinned Mr. Floyd in the street for more than nine minutes, using his knee to press down on his neck while Mr. Floyd protested, “I can’t breathe.” The Minneapolis Police Department initially said he died of a “medical accident.”
In the federal plea agreement, Mr. Chauvin admitted that he used excessive force against Mr. Floyd and, in a similar incident in 2017, a teenager named John Pope, whose mother reported that he had assaulted her. Although Mr. Pope “did not make any aggressive movements” toward the responding officers, according to the settlement, Mr. Chauvin struck him repeatedly with a flashlight and held him down with his knee for more than 15 minutes.
“I was treated like I wasn’t a human being at the hands of Derek Chauvin,” Mr. Pope said during the sentencing 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 lived to see another day.”
Mr Chauvin, who has made only scant public comments since his arrest, also addressed the court, although he offered no apology for his actions. “Your honor, I realize the difficult and unpleasant work of this case, it must be very difficult to follow legal standards in a tense political environment,” he said.
He wished Mr Pope “a good relationship with your mother” and the chance to receive “the best possible education to lead a productive and fulfilling life”. To Mr Floyd’s children, he said: “I wish them all the best in their lives and great guidance to become great adults.”
Carolyn Polenti, Mr. Chauvin’s mother, spoke on her son’s behalf, just as she did at his sentencing in the state trial. She cited his 20 years of service with the Minneapolis Police Department and said many of its members “failed to support their own,” an apparent reference to the condemnation of her son’s actions and the testimony against him by fellow officers.
The plea agreement calls for Mr. Chauvin’s federal sentence to be about the same length as the state sentence, 20 to 25 years, giving him the option to serve his time in a federal prison, where he is less likely to encounter people who helped convict them when he was an officer.
Three other police officers were involved in the fatal arrest of Mr. Floyd, including two rookies, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, and a more experienced police officer, Tou Tao, who, together with Mr. Chauvin, arrived on the scene to provide support. Bystander video of the encounter went viral and the four officers were quickly fired.
Understand the trials arising from the death of George Floyd
Card 1 of 5
Four accused. Along with Mr. Chauvin, three other employees were accused of playing a role in Mr. Floyd’s death. Tou Thao, a veteran officer who was Mr. Chauvin’s partner, detained a group of bystanders. J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane assisted in the apprehension of Mr. Floyd. The four are involved in several productions.
Mr. Chauvin’s criminal trial. In April 2021, a jury in state court found Mr. Chauvin, who is white, guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. In June 2021, he was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison; he has appealed his conviction.
Second criminal trial. Mr Kueng, Mr Lane and Mr Tao were due to stand trial on June 13 on charges of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter in Mr Floyd’s death. On May 18, Mr. Lane pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in state court. The trial against the other two police officers was later postponed.
They also faced federal civil rights charges in addition to state murder charges, a move that 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 defense against acquittals. convictions or successful appeals in state court.
“The federal government has made a statement that this case is of national importance,” he said. “And it was also a sentencing for something outside of what we saw in the state — it was about disenfranchisement, not just the killing of George Floyd.”
While Mr. Chauvin first faced state charges, his three colleagues were convicted on federal civil rights charges in February, before the state trial. Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of about five to six years for Mr. Lane, the only officer who questioned Mr. Floyd’s prolonged detention, and a “significantly higher” sentence, though not as high as that of Mr. Chauvin, for two other officers.
Mr. Lane pleaded guilty to a state charge of second-degree manslaughter and is expected to be sentenced in September; prosecutors asked for three years. Mr Kueng and Mr Tao are expected to stand trial on state charges of murder and manslaughter in October.
Mr. Chauvin has been held in a Minnesota state prison since his murder conviction, largely confined to administrative segregation. “I sympathize with you, Mr. Chauvin, for the conditions in which you have been confined since your arrest,” Judge Magnuson said.
Add Comment