Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years for George Floyd’s murder

New Delhi: Former officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, Derek Chauvin, on Friday, was sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison for the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, whose shocking death sparked a series of protests and demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism in the United States.
The sentence falls short of the 30 years requested by the prosecutors. With good behavior, Chauvin will be eligible for parole after 15 years–almost two-thirds of his prison term. Chauvin declined to speak during the sentencing, invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not testify, however, he offered his condolences to the Floyd family, stating that pending legal matters prevented him from saying more. Chauvin’s sentencing is a rare occurrence. In the United States, cases of police brutality and negligence rarely go to trial, and in the unlikelihood that they do, the number of convictions are far eclipsed by the number of acquittals and mistrials.
On April 21, 2021, Chauvin was found guilty on all charges, being convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.Over a year ago, on May 25, 2020, Chauvin had knelt down on George Floyd’s body, pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck, cutting off the 46-year old’s oxygen supply. For 9 and a half minutes, Floyd repeatedly cried out that he could not breathe, gasping for air and calling out to his mother. Video footage of the incident went viral, sparking nationwide movements calling for reduced funding for the police, and an end to a ‘broken system’, which soon spread to other parts of the globe.
Judge Peter Cahill, who passed the sentence, said that emotion or public opinion did not influence the severity of the punishment, well beyond the usual Minnesota standards of 10 to 15 years. He understood that there were exceptional circumstances to this case, and wanted to acknowledge the pain of the families, especially of Floyd. “Mr Chauvin’s prolonged restraint of Mr. Floyd was also much longer and more painful than the typical scenario in a second-degree or third-degree murder or second-degree manslaughter case,” the judge wrote in a 22-page memorandum.
The Floyd family appeared in a press conference after the sentencing was carried out, where they criticized the decision to imprison Chauvin for 22.5 years, calling it a “slap on the wrist”. Calling for a life sentence, George Floyd’s nephew, Brandon Williams said, “What kind of message are you sending to our country? … That you can kill a man in cold blood and get a slap on the wrist? So, I won’t celebrate this. I won’t celebrate it at all. But I will celebrate a guilty conviction of a police officer that killed a Black man because far too many times we see them kill us and get right away with it.”
The three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest are scheduled for trial in March 2022 on state charges of aiding and abetting both the murder and manslaughter. All three officers have pled not guilty. They will also stand trial alongside Chauvin on federal civil rights charges, for which a date is yet to be set.