Police officer who murdered George Floyd sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison

Former police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison for the murder of African American George Floyd in May 2020 in Minnesota, United States.

Chauvin had already been found guilty but the sentence had not yet been pronounced against him. The decision was reported on Friday by Judge Peter Cahill.

The prosecutors required 30 years in prisonwhile his defense had requested parole. The maximum sentence permitted by law, based on the charges laid, was 40 years.

With good behavior, Chauvin, 45, could be paroled after serving two-thirds of his sentence, i.e. about 15 years.

In recent months, the former police officer has been placed in segregation for his own safety at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights, outside Minneapolis.

Hours before his conviction, Chauvin’s lawyers filed a motion for a new trial, which was dismissed Thursday by Judge Cahill.

The magistrate ruled that Chauvin’s defense could not demonstrate that the court “abused its discretion or made errors so that the accused was deprived of his constitutional right to a just right”, as he said. ‘had argued in the request.

The reaction of the brothers

Terrence Floyd, one of George’s brothers, questioned Chauvin at the hearing this Friday, and asked the former agent, sitting on the bench, about what was going through his mind when he pressed his knee against his brother’s neck.

“My brother was killed by Derek Chauvin, which everyone knows. The facts of this case have proved it beyond a reasonable doubt. There are three guilty verdicts,” he recalled.

Several relatives of Floyd intervened at the hearing this Friday, before the conviction against the former police officer was known.

The session was opened by Gianna, the 7-year-old daughter of the deceased, who through a video broadcast in the room said that she would like her father to be there but that in reality he was “by his soul“.

And he remembered brushing his teeth. “If I was there, I would tell her that I love her”, said the minor, interviewed by another person in the recording.

Another of Floyd’s brothers, Philonise, said he went to court on Friday to ask for the maximum sentence to be imposed on Chauvin to end the tragedy his family went through.

All agreed to ask for the maximum sentence, a request that was ultimately not met with the sentence reported by the court.

A few minutes after the pronouncement of the sentence, Bridgett floydGeorge’s sister and founder of the George Floyd Memorial Foundation welcomed Judge Peter Cahill’s ruling but said it was not enough.

“Today’s conviction against the Minneapolis cop who killed my brother George Floyd shows that issues of police brutality are finally being taken seriously,” he said.

But he added that anyway there is “a long way to go and many changes to make before the blacks and browns finally feel treated fairly and humanely by the police in this country. “

For Biden, the phrase is “appropriate”

US President Joe Biden was questioned about Chauvin’s conviction and after noting that he did not know “all the circumstances that were taken into account”, he stressed that “it seems appropriate”.

The president made the statement in statements to reporters during a meeting in the Oval Office with the President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani.

the murderer

On May 25, 2020, Chauvin and three colleagues arrested Floyd, 46, on suspicion of having had a fake 20 dollar bill in a store in Minneapolis, a city in the northern United States.

Floyd was handcuffed and pinned to the sidewalk in the middle of the street. so chauvinistic kneeling on his neck for almost ten minutes, indifferent to the pleas of the inmate, who told him “I cannot breathe”, and of the witnesses.

The scene, filmed with a cell phone and uploaded to the networks by a young woman, quickly went viral.

After weeks of home confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country and in other countries, to demand an end to systemic racism and police brutality in the United States.

The massive protests have been joined by the debate around pressing social issues affecting the United States, where President Joe Biden is trying to undertake the police reforms he promised during his campaign.

The trial of Chauvin, who refused to testify, was followed closely by millions across the country.

Former agent’s attorney, Eric Nelson, claimed his client followed law enforcement procedures and Floyd’s death was due to health issues exacerbated by drug use.

The jurors were not convinced and it took less than ten hours to convict him.

With agency information

LM