Derek Chauvin sentencing: Ex-officer sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison for George Floyd murder

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that he has directed a Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate the vandalisation of a George Floyd monument unveiled on Juneteenth.

The monument was defaced ahead of the sentencing of Derek Chauvin on Friday by a white supremacist hate group.

“To the group of neo-Nazis who did this, I want to be absolutely clear: get the hell out of our state,” New York governor Andrew Cuomo said in a post on Twitter.

Several people interviewed in Minneapolis in the days before Derek Chauvin’s sentencing have said they want to see a tough sentence for the former police officer.

The arrest and trial of Chauvin created an intensely volatile atmosphere in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, as the city saw consecutive days of protests and riots following the man’s murder.

Ahead of the sentencing, the concrete barricades, razor wire and National Guard patrols that surrounded the county courthouse amid the trial in anticipation of community disturbance are gone.

Authorities had predicted an uproar if Chauvin walked free, but after he was found guilty on all counts much of the tension in the city settled.

However, many residents are holding out for a tough verdict against the 45-year-old, the Associated Press reports.

Thirty years “doesn’t seem like long enough to me,” Andrew Harer, a retail worker who is white said, referencing the maximum predicted sentence Chauvin could face.

He added: “I would be fine if he was in jail for the rest of his life.”

Joseph Allen, 31, who is Black, said he thinks Chauvin should receive “at least” 30 years and said he’d prefer a life sentence.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, called for Chauvin to be sentenced “to the fullest extent of the law.”

She called Floyd’s death “a modern day lynching” and predicted community outrage if Chauvin is sentenced lightly.

George Floyd's cousin Tera Brown has said ahead of the sentencing of Derek Chauvin that they are hoping the former police officer will receive the “maximum sentence”.

“We’ve been anxiously awaiting this day, and I fully expect that today will be a very emotional day for us. We’re wanting to see him get the maximum sentence,” she said on CNN’s New Day.

Three former police officers accused of aiding and abetting in the murder of George Floyd will remain free on bail until March 2022 after a judge in Minneapolis announced their state trial would be postponed.

But who are they and what charges are they facing? Graeme Massie reports:

George Floyd’s family’s lawyer has spoken out ahead of the sentencing of Derek Chauvin, saying they are seeking “equal justice” in the case.

“We have always asked that the appropriate sentence would be what they would have sentenced George Floyd to had the roles been reversed,” he said in an appearance on CBS This Morning. “We only seek equal justice in this matter.”

Floyd’s cousin Shareeduh Tate told the broadcaster that they “don’t think there is any amount of time that would be justifiable in our minds” for Chauvin but that they “need the 30 year sentence”.

When asked whether Chauvin speaking at the proceedings on Friday would “matter” to her Mr Tate said: “No. I don’t care to hear from him at all. I don’t think there’s anything that he could say that would change my perception of what happened on 25 May 2020.”

Judge Peter Cahill, who will today sentence Derek Chauvin, rejected a request on Friday for a new trial over the death of George Floyd.

Cahill said defence attorney Eric Nelson had not shown that Chauvin was denied the right to a fair trial, according to The Associated Press.

He also denied a request for a hearing on jury misconduct, NBC News reported. While not mentioned in the request or ruling, interviews from juror Brandon Mitchell combined with photos of him wearing Black Lives Matter clothing led observers expected Nelson to push for misconduct and a retrial.

Under Minnesota statutes, Chauvin will be sentenced only on the most serious charge of second-degree murder. That’s because all of the charges against him stem from one act, with one victim.

The max for that charge is 40 years, but legal experts have said there’s no way he’ll get that much. Case law dictates the practical maximum Chauvin could face is 30 years — double what the high end of state sentencing guidelines suggest. Anything above that risks being overturned on appeal.

Of course, Judge Peter Cahill could sentence Chauvin to much less. Prosecutors have asked for 30 years, while defense attorney Eric Nelson is seeking probation.

Mark Osler, a professor at University of St. Thomas School of Law, said both sides have staked out extreme positions, and the “gulf is huge between them. I don’t think that either side is going to end up getting what they want.” - Associated Press

Minnesota has sentencing guidelines that were created to establish consistent sentences that don’t consider factors such as race or gender. For second-degree unintentional murder, the guideline range for someone with no criminal record goes from 10 years and eight months to up to 15 years. The presumptive sentence is in the middle, at 12 1/2 years.

Cahill last month agreed with prosecutors that aggravating factors in Floyd’s death warrant going higher than the guidelines. The judge found that Chauvin abused his position of authority, treated Floyd with particular cruelty, and that the crime was seen by several children. He also wrote that Chauvin knew the restraint of Floyd was dangerous.

“The prolonged use of this technique was particularly egregious in that George Floyd made it clear he was unable to breathe and expressed the view that he was dying as a result of the officers’ restraint,” Cahill wrote last month.

Osler said Cahill’s finding of aggravating factors showed his willingness to go above the guidelines. But he said those guidelines still function like a tether, and the further Cahill moves from the guidelines, the more the tether stretches. He said a 20- or 25-year sentence is more likely than 30.

Joe Friedberg, a Minneapolis defense attorney who has been watching the case, agreed. He cited a U.S. Supreme Court case, Koon v. United States, in which the court said a judge could consider that a former police officer would likely spend much of his sentence in isolation for his own safety. Cahill might take the harder time into consideration to give Chauvin a little less, Friedberg said. - AP

Keith Ellison, who is overseeing the prosecution of Derek Chauvin, told The Washington Post that the former cop wouldn’t just be sentenced for the murder of George Floyd, but also that he “murdered trust”.

“We’re not looking for revenge. We’re looking at the seriousness of what happened,” he said, pointing to the 9 and 17 year old girls who watched the scene unfold.

“What do you expect a 9-year-old child to grow up thinking about the police? What do you think people looking at the video think of the police? How much damage has been done to the trust that needs to exist between the police and the community?” he said.

A statue of George Floyd in Brooklyn was vandalized on the morning before his murderer was due to be sentenced.

The New York Police Department said the six-foot statue, unveiled over the past weekend to mark Juneteenth, was vandalized why graffiti of phrase “patriotfront.us” was sprayed over the inscription.

The website brands its mission as to “Reclaim America” while it’s manifesto calls for a “hard reset” on the nation and establishing a common “pan-European identity”. The Southern Poverty Law Centre considers it a white nationalist group.

Surveillance video showed four men defacing the statue about 3.40am local time Thursday morning. The white statue was spray painted black on the face.

The NYPD hate crime task force and the racial and ethnically motivated extremism unit are investigating, and images of the four suspects were released in the below tweet.