Derek Chauvin sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison for depriving George Floyd of his civil rights

Derek Chauvin sentenced to more than 22 years in prison 3:49 Minnesota (CNN) — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin will serve 245 months in prison for violating the civil rights of George Floyd. A federal judge in Minneapolis sentenced Chauvin to 252 months, but had seven months left for time served.

Prosecutors asked the court to make Chauvin’s sentence concurrent to his 22.5-year state sentence.
Last month, prosecutors asked a federal judge in Minneapolis to sentence Chauvin to 25 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights, followed by five years of supervised release. Chauvin was sentenced in June 2021 to 22 1/2 years on state charges of accidental homicide, manslaughter with disregard for life, and manslaughter in the felony commission of the May 2020 death of George Floyd, an assault. captured on video that sparked a national outcry over police brutality and a reckoning over racial justice in America. Footage from a Minneapolis street showed Chauvin impassively kneeling on the 46-year-old black man’s neck and back as he lay in handcuffs and in the street for more than 9 minutes, panting and telling Minneapolis officers, “I can’t.” breathe”. Under Minnesota law, Chauvin will have to serve two-thirds of his sentence, or 15 years, and will be eligible for supervised release for the remaining 7 1/2 years. Chauvin appealed his conviction. Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to federal charges of depriving Floyd of his civil rights when the former officer knelt on Floyd’s back and neck for more than nine minutes. As part of the plea deal, Chauvin faces a recommended sentence of between 20 and 25 years. He could have faced life in prison if he had been convicted at trial. According to a court document filed by his attorney in late June, Chauvin spends most of his life in solitary confinement in a maximum-security state prison. Attorney Eric Nelson asks in the document, titled “Defendant’s Sentencing Position,” that he serve 20 years, less time served in state prison, in a federal facility. Prosecutors told the court in December that they would request that the federal sentence be served at the same time as his state charges. Three other former police officers were found guilty by a federal jury in February of violating Floyd’s rights on May 25, 2020. One of them, Thomas Lane, pleaded guilty to the state charges. The trial of Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng is scheduled to begin in October. — CNN’s Paul Vercammen reported from St. Paul, Minnesota, and Steve Almasy reported and wrote from Atlanta.