A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, a move that adds a few years to the time the former Minneapolis police officer is already serving for his murder conviction while transferring him to federal custody.
U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson’s sentence came after Chauvin had agreed to a plea deal that called for a sentence ranging from 20 to 25 years. Federal prosecutors had sought the top end of that range, arguing that Chauvin, who is white, killed Floyd in cold blood when he pinned the Black man to the pavement outside a Minneapolis corner store on May 25, 2020, for more than 9 minutes as Floyd pleaded that he could not breathe.
