On December 15, 2021, Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges in the death of George Floyd and an alleged assault on 14-year old unrelated to the Floyd incident. We covered the plea in Derek Chauvin Pleads Guilty To Federal Charges In George Floyd Death:
Derek Chauvin was convicted of multiple state criminal charges in the death of George Floyd. He was sentenced to 22.5 years.Chauvin also faced civil rights federal charges along with three other officers in Floyd’s death, as well as charges related to alleged abuse of a 14 year old during an arrest….Today Chauvin pleaded guilty to the federal charges….You can read the Plea Agreement.…Why would Chauvin plead guilty?It seems he has given up fighting the state charges, where the system is against him, and if by some chance the conviction was appealed, he simply would be tried again. And again. And again.This holds out the possibility of serving his time in federal prison, which would be better than state prison.
In late April 2022, Chauvin filed his appeal from his state conviction, Cataloguing Pervasive Trial Misconduct and Irregularities:
Throughout the trial and in the aftermath, we noted numerous trial errors that deprived Chauvin of a fair trial. The most obvious problem was the open and obvious threat of rioting and burning the city (and other cities) down if there were a not guilty verdict. See these prior posts for some of the problems we noted:
- Derek Chauvin Files Motion for New Trial and To “Impeach the Verdict” Due To Jury Misconduct
- Chauvin Juror Admits Participating In Pre-Trial Protest, Photographed In “Knee Off Our Necks” T-Shirt
- Alternate Juror in Derek Chauvin Trial: “I did not want to go through rioting and destruction again”
- Derek Chauvin Trial Tainted By Threats Of Violence Calling Into Question Whether Any Minneapolis Jury Could Be Impartial
- Chauvin Trial Judge: Rep. Maxine Waters’ threats may result in “this whole trial being overturned” on appeal
- Chauvin Trial Verdict Prediction (of Sorts): On legal merits alone, not guilty — but political dynamics drive injustice
- Maxine Waters: Protesters Need to “Get More Confrontational” If No “Murder” Conviction Of Derek Chauvin
- Chauvin Trial: Jury has “a basis” to “find reasonable doubt here, but it’s not what I’m expecting”
Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years on the state charges, and later pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges guranteeing a roughly equivalent time in prison.Nonetheless, Chauvin has filed an appeal from his state conviction. I’m not sure the logic there since he pleaded to the federal charges. Perhaps readers have insight into that, and can post in the comments.To round out the circle, here is Chavin’s Appeal Brief, which catalogs the trial errors.
The state court appeal docket reflects that the state’s response to the appeal is due September 7, 2022.
Today was sentencing day, and the Court docket entry reflects the sentence of 245 months (20.4 years) plus 5 years supervised release:
The sentencing was not televised. This local news report describes some of what happened in court:
The NY Times reports that “With time already served deducted, Mr. Chauvin’s sentence amounts to 20 years and five months, near the lower end of the range of 20 to 25 years prescribed by the sentencing guidelines. His federal and state sentences are to be served concurrently.”
The NY Post reports what I suspected, that the federal conviction has the effect of adding prison time because the state charges would have more lenient reductions for good time served:
Federal Judge Paul Magnuson blasted the disgraced ex-cop from the bench before handing down the steep sentence, which will run concurrently with the more than 22 years Chauvin is already serving on state convictions of murder and manslaughter.“I really don’t know why you did what you did,” the judge told Chauvin. “To put your knee on a person’s neck until they expired is simply wrong. … Your conduct is wrong and it is offensive.”Because of federal parole policies, Chauvin will likely serve more time behind bars than if he served only his sentence imposed by the judge in his state case.The ex-cop will also be transferred from Minnesota’s only maximum security state prison to federal prison because of the conviction.Magnuson also chided Chauvin for shattering the lives of three fellow police officers who were on scene when he killed Floyd – and who have each been convicted of federal crimes.“You absolutely destroyed the lives of three young officers by taking command of the scene,” the judge said.
So the pending state appeal asserting Chauvin was denied a fair trial will not matter. Chauvin will spend almost another 20 years in prison.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY
