The police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd has been sentenced to 21 years
Derek Chauvin has been sentenced on separate federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights during his arrest in May 2020.
Chauvin pleaded guilty to the charges in December, and is already is serving a sentence of 22-and-a-half years in a Minnesota prison for Floyd’s murder.
“To put your knee on another person’s neck until they expire is wrong, and thus you need to be substantially punished.”
U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson
It’s believed 46-year-old Chauvin did not offer an apology, and reportedly says the court was handling the case in a “politically charged environment”.
The former Minneapolis police officer admitted to violating Floyd’s right not to face “unreasonable seizure” by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Floyd’s murder was captured on video and sparked the rise of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement across the U.S.
His mother also spoke to the court, saying her son had been wrongly called a racist.
This new sentence will run concurrently and Chauvin is expected to move to a federal prison.
