Originally published 2021-06-28.
On 25 June 2021 Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 22 and a half years in prison for the murder of George Floyd. The term was ten years longer than Minnesota's guidelines recommend for a first offender, because the judge found that Chauvin had abused his position of authority and treated Floyd with particular cruelty. A year later a federal judge added a 21-year sentence for civil rights crimes, served at the same time, and Chauvin's appeals against the murder conviction have all failed.
The sentence in brief
A jury had found Chauvin guilty on 20 April 2021 of three charges: unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Under Minnesota practice he was sentenced only on the most serious count, second-degree murder. Shortly before passing sentence, Cahill also turned down a defence motion for a new trial.
Prosecutors had asked for 30 years; the defence asked for probation and time served. The guidelines pointed to 12.5 years for someone with no criminal record. Cahill went well beyond that after ruling in May 2021 that aggravating factors applied, chief among them that Chauvin had treated Floyd "with particular cruelty" and abused the trust that comes with a police badge, in front of children who witnessed the arrest.
In Minnesota, prisoners usually serve about two-thirds of their sentence in custody and the rest on supervised release, provided they behave. That is why reports at the time said Chauvin could be released after roughly 15 years.
What happened to George Floyd
On the evening of 25 May 2020 police were called to Cup Foods, a shop at East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis, after an employee believed Floyd, 46, had paid with a counterfeit $20 note. Officers handcuffed him and pinned him face down in the street. Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes while Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe, and kept going after Floyd went limp and bystanders begged him to stop.
A teenager's phone video of the arrest spread around the world. Hennepin County's medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, caused by cardiopulmonary arrest while Floyd was being restrained and his neck compressed. At trial the defence argued that heart disease and drug use were to blame, but the jury rejected that account.
Voices in the courtroom
The sentencing hearing included statements from both families. Floyd's young daughter appeared in a recorded video. His brother Terrence asked Chauvin directly: "Why? What were you thinking? What was going through your head when you had your knee on my brother's neck?"
Chauvin's mother told the court her son was a good man. Chauvin himself spoke only briefly. Citing other legal matters still pending against him, he offered his condolences to the Floyd family and said more information would come out in future that he hoped would give them some peace of mind. He did not apologise.
Cahill said the sentence was "not based on emotion, or sympathy" but on the law and the facts, while acknowledging the pain felt by everyone involved, above all Floyd's family. He also released a written memorandum explaining his reasoning in detail. Outside court, Floyd's sister Bridgett said the sentence showed that police brutality was finally being taken seriously, while other relatives and activists argued that only the maximum 40 years would have been enough.
The federal case and other sentences
The US Justice Department brought separate civil rights charges. In December 2021 Chauvin pleaded guilty to violating Floyd's constitutional rights and, in a second case, to using excessive force against a 14-year-old boy in 2017. On 7 July 2022 a federal judge sentenced him to 21 years, to be served concurrently with the state term. In 2023 he also pleaded guilty to tax offences and received a further 13 months, again running at the same time.
The three other officers at the scene were also convicted:
- Tou Thao received 3½ years on federal charges and, after being found guilty in state court of aiding and abetting manslaughter in May 2023, 4¾ years.
- J. Alexander Kueng received 3 years federally and pleaded guilty to the state charge, receiving 3½ years.
- Thomas Lane received 2½ years federally and pleaded guilty to the state charge, receiving 3 years.
Their state and federal terms run concurrently.
Appeals and life in prison
Chauvin's defence argued that intense publicity, comments by politicians and the decision not to move the trial out of Minneapolis had denied him a fair hearing. The Minnesota Court of Appeals rejected those arguments and upheld his conviction in April 2023. The Minnesota Supreme Court declined to review the case that July, and on 20 November 2023 the US Supreme Court refused to hear it.
Chauvin has been held in federal prison. On 24 November 2023 he was stabbed at the federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, by another inmate, who was later charged with attempted murder; Chauvin survived and was moved to another facility in Texas. He has continued to file motions challenging his federal conviction.
Why the case still matters
Floyd's killing set off one of the largest protest movements in US history. Demonstrations took place in more than 2,000 American cities and over 60 countries. Most were peaceful, but in Minneapolis and St Paul more than 1,500 businesses were damaged or destroyed, many by fire.
The aftermath changed policing debates. Minneapolis agreed in March 2021 to pay Floyd's family $27 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit. In June 2023 a Justice Department investigation found that the city's police had a pattern of excessive force and of discriminating against Black and Native American residents, and the city agreed to negotiate a court-enforced reform plan. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the practices his investigators found had made what happened to Floyd possible.
The Chauvin sentence itself was notable for a simple reason: convictions of police officers for killings on duty are rare in the United States, and sentences of this length rarer still.
Sources: Wikipedia: Derek Chauvin; Wikipedia: Murder of George Floyd.
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