The presiding judge for the federal cases against four former Minneapolis police officers; in the killing of George Floyd; said Wednesday that he has accepted the terms of Derek Chauvin’s plea agreement. Secondly, he will sentence him to 20 to 25 years in prison.
Initially, Chauvin had appealed his conviction; saying among other things; that the jury was intimidated by ongoing; sometimes violent; protests and prejudiced by excessive pre-trial publicity. He was convicted of kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for 9 seconds while he begged Chauvin to let up, screaming, ‘I can’t breathe’. Which has become a national chant in honor of George Floyd’s life and the tragic death that took place unlawfully in front of the world to see.
On May 25, Minneapolis police officers arrested George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, after a convenience store employee called 911 and told the police that Mr. Floyd had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Seventeen minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious and pinned beneath three police officers, showing no signs of life.
Consequently, last June, Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Chauvin to 22 1/2 years in prison after jurors found him guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
