Former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, already sentenced to 22½ years imprisonment for murdering George Floyd in May 2020, was given another 20-year sentence after his trial on federal civil rights charges concluded. Chauvin, 46, pleaded guilty in December in hopes of avoiding a longer term. He will serve the sentences concurrently, but now moves to federal prison and cannot be paroled for at least 16 years.
As part of the plea agreement, Chauvin also pleaded guilty to violating the rights of a then-14-year-old boy during another arrest that took place in 2017. According to the indictment, Chauvin held the boy by the throat, hit him in the head with a flashlight and held his knee on the boy's neck and upper back while he was handcuffed and not resisting. Like Mr Floyd, the boy was black. Prosecutors said that unreleased bodycam footage showed Chauvin kneeling on the boy's back for 17 minutes while he cried out for his mother.
Stacking federal and state trials might look a lot like trying him twice for the same crime, but the emphasis on civil rights is important. For example, I didn't realize until the federal trial that Chauvin used bloodless methods that control suspects without securing them, letting him him work on his victims for as long as he liked.
