Derek Chauvin, the 45-year-old former U.S police officer who was convicted in April for George Floyd’s murder has been jailed for 22 years and 6 months.
He was charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against George’s neck for up to 9 minutes leading to the 46-year-old dying after begging for breath.
Derek Chauvin was handed his sentence today, Friday, 25th June 2021 at a Minnesota court presided over by Judge Peter Cahill. In an Aljazeera report, prosecutors had asked for a 30-year sentence for Chauvin.
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There was emotional testimony from Floyd’s family and Chauvin’s mother, along with brief condolences from Chauvin himself.
The judge agreed that Chauvin abused his position of trust and authority by treating Floyd with particular cruelty when he knelt on his neck for over nine minutes, even as Floyd begged that “I can’t breathe”. He however explained that the sentence was not based on emotion, sympathy or public opinion.
“I’m not going to attempt to be profound or clever because it’s not the appropriate time,” Cahill said whilst detailing that his reason for the 22.5-year jail time would be laid out in a 22-page memorandum.
“I’m not basing my sentence on public opinion. I’m not basing it on the attempt to send any messages. The job of a trial court judge is to apply the law to specific facts and to deal with individual cases,” he emphasized.
George Perry Floyd Jr, an African American man, died on 25th May 2020 after the police officers manhandled him during his arrest.
The officers on patrol showed up to arrest him after a store clerk suspected he may have used a counterfeit $20 bill in Minneapolis to buy a pack of cigarettes from Cup Foods, a grocery store.
His death sparked outrage on social media and reinforced the BlackLivesMatter campaign that spread across countries.
