The police officer who killed George Floyd has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison

Police officer Derek Chavin was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison by a United States federal judge on Thursday for suffocating African-American George Floyd with his knee in May 2020.

The former agent, White, 46, had already been sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison by a judge in the state of Minnesota, but he appealed the sentence. The concurrent federal sentence, for its part, is final because it is the result of a plea agreement.

It could be served at the same time as the rest of the sentence, said Judge Paul Magnuson of the Saint-Paul District Court, who gave him credit for seven months already served in custody.

“I don’t know why you did this, but putting your knee on someone’s neck until they die is wrong. For that, you should be punished severely,” the magistrate explained to him. During a short intervention, Derek Chauvin wished the children of George Floyd to “succeed in life” without apologizing or expressing the slightest regret.

Huge protests

His mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, assured him that he was not a heartless racist, saying that “all lives matter, no matter the color of their skin”, hijacking the slogan. Black Lives Matter (Black Lives Matter).

Called to the bar, the dead man’s brother, Philonis Floyd, demanded the “maximum sentence” against Derek Chavin, who said he had not slept since the tragedy.

On May 25, 2020, this veteran Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of an African-American man for nearly ten minutes, oblivious to the interventions of panicked passersby and the cries of George Floyd.

The scene, which was filmed and posted online, sparked massive protests against racism and police violence in the US and beyond.

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