Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced on Friday to 22 1/2 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, whose dying gasps under Chauvin’s knee were caught on video and triggered massive nationwide protests against racial injustice in the USA.
The punishment — which came after Chauvin broke his year-long silence to offer condolences to the Floyd family and express hope that they eventually have “some peace of mind” — is one of the longest prison terms ever imposed on a U.S. police officer in the killing of a Black person, according to an AP report from Minneapolis.
The fired white officer was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for up to 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old man gasped that he couldn’t breathe and went limp on May 25, 2020.
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Still, Floyd family members and others were disappointed. The sentence fell short of the 30 years prosecutors had requested. And with good behavior, Chauvin, 45, could get out on parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence, or about 15 years.
Judge Peter Cahill went beyond the 12 1/2-year sentence prescribed under state guidelines, citing Chauvin’s “abuse of a position of trust and authority and also the particular cruelty” shown to Floyd.
Cahill said it was important to recognize the pain of the Floyd family.
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At the same time he said, "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."
The verdict was widely seen as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who has spoken several times with the Floyd family, said the sentence seemed appropriate.
Chauvin's sentence was one of the longest given to a former police officer for using unlawful deadly force in the United States, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted the case, told reporters. Successful prosecutions of police officers in such cases have been rare.
"Today's sentencing is not justice but it is another moment of real accountability on the road to justice," Ellison said outside the courtroom, calling on law enforcement leaders around the United States to see it as a moment for reform.
