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A federal court has finally sentenced ex-cop Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating civil rights. He can serve the sentence at the same time as the 22.5-year prison sentence for second-degree murder.
The white ex-cop Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to 21 years in prison by a US federal court in Minnesota for violating the civil rights of the African American George Floyd, who he killed. He had already been sentenced to 22 years and six months in prison in June 2021 for second-degree murder, among other things, and is already serving this sentence. On the other hand, a recourse is pending.
Judgment final, simultaneous serving of sentence
The accompanying penalty now pronounced by the federal court in Saint Paul is final. Chauvin pleaded guilty last December to willfully depriving Floyd of his constitutional rights. With the guilty plea, he had averted another lengthy process, but accepted a possible longer prison sentence.
Chauvin could now be transferred from solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison in Minnesota to a federal prison with better conditions. The sentence can be served at the same time as the first sentence, Judge Paul Magnuson said in Saint Paul. The seven months already served would count against Chauvin.
Legend:
Ex-Cop Derek Chauvin on June 25, 2021 at the sentencing hearing at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis.
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The African American Floyd died in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Videos of passers-by documented how police officers pushed the unarmed man to the ground.
Violence sparked huge protests
Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for a good nine minutes while Floyd kept begging him to breathe. Floyd’s death shook the United States and sparked a wave of demonstrations against racism and police violence. It was the largest civil rights protest in the United States in decades.