Federal Prosecutors Seek 25-Year Sentence For Derek Chauvin
U.S. Attorneys urged a federal judge Wednesday (June 22) to sentence former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 25 years behind bars for violating George Floyd’s civil rights during a 2020 arrest, CNN reported.
A state jury convicted Chauvin on April 20, 2021, on all counts of murder and manslaughter, and he was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison. Chauvin later pleaded guilty in December 2021 in a federal civil rights case to violating Floyd’s civil rights.
A viral video of the May 25, 2020 arrest showed Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck while the Black man was handcuffed and face down on the ground. Three other former Minneapolis police officers at the scene ignored Floyd complaining that he couldn’t breathe and dismissed people observing the arrest who pleaded with them to stop Chauvin.
"A 300-month sentence appropriately captures the seriousness of the defendant's abuses and the lasting harms that he has inflicted on his victims, their families, and the larger community," CNN quoted the prosecutors.
They also asked the judge to order that Chauvin serve the requested 25-year federal sentence concurrently with his state sentence, adding up to nearly 50 years in prison.
Chauvin’s attorneys did not immediately return CNN’s request for comments.
Meanwhile, Chauvin faces two separate federal lawsuits for allegedly using similar brutal arrest tactics three years before he killed Floyd. John Pope and Zoya Code filed lawsuits on May 31 accusing Chauvin of excessive force, including using a knee to restrain them, during arrests in 2017.
RELATED: Federal Lawsuits Filed Against Former Minneapolis Policeman Convicted Of Murdering George Floyd
The lawsuit says Pope was 14 years old when Chauvin struck him several times with a flashlight before restraining him in the prone position for 15 minutes. Chauvin is accused of pressing his knee on Code’s neck for 4 minutes and 41 seconds while another officer at the scene stood by and did nothing.
