Saint Paul, United States: Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was sentenced to the murder of George Floyd, was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on Thursday on federal charges.
Chauvin, who was white, pleaded guilty in December 2021 for violating Floyd’s civilian rights, a 46-year-old black man, during his arrest in May 2020 for allegedly using a fake $ 20 bill to buy a packet of cigarettes.
Chauvin had served a sentence of 22 and a half years after being sentenced to the accusation of state killing over the death of Floyd, which triggered protests against racial injustice and police brutality throughout the United States.
State sentences and federals will be carried out simultaneously but 46 -year -old Chauvin will be allowed to undergo a sentence in a federal prison rather than in the Minnesota state prison, where he has been detained in isolation cells.
Federal Prosecutor has sought a sentence of 25 years.
“I really don’t know why you did what you did,” the US District Court judge Paul Magnuson said in imposing a sentence.
“But to put your knees around other people’s necks until they died wrong,” he said. “You must be punished substantially.”
Chauvin, a 19 -year -old veteran from the Minneapolis police, was arrested in a video that kneeling viral around Floyd’s neck for almost 10 minutes, until he passed out and died.
Chauvin spoke briefly before the sentence but did not apologize for his actions.
Speaking to Floyd’s children, he said: “I just want to say that I hope the best in their lives and have excellent guidance to become great adults.”
– Nightmares –
George Floyd’s brother, Philonene Floyd, made a statement “the impact of the victim” and asked for a life sentence for Chauvin.
He said he suffered a nightmare because of the death of his brother.
Chauvin has appealed the sentence of the killing of the Minnesota state but his sentence on federal charges will ensure he will spend two decades in prison apart from the results of his appeal.
Chauvin and three other police officers who were at the scene during the fatal arrest of Floyd – Tou Thao, Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane – were accused of violating their constitutional rights and failed to respond to their medical needs.
Keung and Lane helped withstand the floyd who was handcuffed, while Thao kept the observers who begged the officers to get off the Floyd when he lay handcuffed on the ground on the ground he complained of he could not breathe.
Lane, who is white, pleaded guilty to the accusation of state killing and was sentenced to Thao, who was an American Hmong, and Kueng, who was black, from federal charges for violating Floyd civil rights.
Thao and Kueng will be tried on charges of state killing at the end of October.
Chauvin also pleaded guilty for violating the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old boy in a separate case
In the 2017 incident, Chauvin held a borgol lodge facing the ground and hit his head several times with a senter.
