MINNEAPOLIS (KFGO) – Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin has been given a sentence of 22 1/2 years in prison in the Memorial Day 2020 killing of George Floyd. With good behavior, he could be released after 15 years.
Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill imposed the sentence during a more than hour-long hearing Friday afternoon. The prosecution asked for 30 years.
Cahill told Floyd’s family members that “I acknowledge and hear the pain that you’re feeling,” before sentencing Chauvin for murder. Cahill prepared a 22-page memorandum explaining his rationale for the sentence, saying it’s “not the appropriate time” to be “profound or clever.”
His sentence went 10 years beyond what was called for in sentencing guidelines. Cahill said that was “based on your abuse of a position of trust and authority and also the particular cruelty shown to George Floyd.”
