Chauvin: Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, will face a federal prosecutor who will seek a court to sentence him to 25 years in jail, extending his state prison sentence by two and a half years.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating George Floyd’s constitutional rights while serving as a Minneapolis police officer on Wednesday. This decision is expected to lengthen Mr. Chauvin’s prison sentence beyond a decades-long state sentence for murdering Mr. Floyd.
Chauvin: Derek admits to infringing on George Floyd’s rights
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Mr. Chauvin, 45, pled guilty at the federal courthouse in St. Paul, possibly for the first time since a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in April. He has been imprisoned in solitary confinement in Minnesota’s only maximum-security jail ever then, with only one hour each day allowed outside his 10-foot by 10-foot cell.
In court, a federal prosecutor announced that the government had negotiated a plea agreement with Mr. Chauvin, under which prosecutors would seek a 25-year sentence for him. Mr. Chauvin’s sentence would run concurrently with his state sentence, extending his time in jail by about two and a half years.
Mr. Chauvin would likely be freed from jail about 2042, when he would be in his mid-60s, under the planned sentence and rules about credit for good behavior. At a subsequent hearing, a judge will decide on the verdict.
Mr. Chauvin, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, acknowledged his mother and other family members who were present in court. During the hearing, Mr. Chauvin was asked a series of questions about the conditions of the agreement by Judge Paul Magnuson and a prosecutor.
“As Mr. Floyd lay on the ground, handcuffed and unresisting, you kept your knees on Mr. Floyd’s neck and body even after Mr. Floyd went unresponsive, correct?” asked Allen Slaughter, a federal prosecutor in Minnesota.
Mr. Chauvin said, “Correct.” He also admitted that his acts were responsible for Mr. Floyd’s death.
Mr. Chauvin’s plea agreement calls for him to serve his time in a federal prison, which is typically thought safer and could keep him away from other inmates he may have arrested. Mr. Chauvin, who was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department one day after Mr. Floyd’s death, would be barred from ever serving as a cop again under the terms of the agreement.
In court, Mr. Chauvin, a white man, admitted that he had violated Mr. Floyd’s constitutional right to be free from excessive seizures, including by a police officer. Mr. Chauvin knelt for nine and a half minutes on the neck of Mr. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, as he lay shackled and face down on a South Minneapolis street corner in May 2020.
Mr. Chauvin also pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a federal charge of violating the civil rights of a 14-year-old child in 2017, admitting that he held the youngster by the throat, beat him in the head with a flashlight, and put his knee into the teenager’s Black neck without cause. Mr. Floyd’s relatives and the adolescent who has not been publicly identified sat in the courtroom during the hearings.
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Mr. Floyd’s relatives said outside the courthouse that they were relieved that Mr. Chauvin had acknowledged responsibility and would likely serve additional time in jail. Still, that little had changed for their family. One of Mr. Floyd’s nephews, Brandon Williams, believes prosecutors should have charged Mr. Chauvin for the assault on the teenager in 2017 rather than in May when he was also accused of Mr. Floyd’s murder.
“George Floyd would still be here if he had been held accountable for what he did to that minor in 2017,” Mr. Williams said. “He got to blow kisses and give air hugs to his family today.” That’s something we can’t do to a loved one who isn’t here.”
Mr. Floyd’s relatives left the courthouse to return to Minneapolis, where they had been supporting the family of Daunte Wright, a Black man killed by a white cop during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb in April. The officer, Kimberly Potter, was eventually charged with manslaughter and is currently on trial.
Carolyn Pawlenty, Mr. Chauvin’s mother, who supported her son when a judge condemned him to death in June, did not react to a reporter’s questions as she walked out of the courthouse on Wednesday.
When expressing condolences to Mr. Floyd’s family at his June sentencing hearing, Mr. Chauvin appeared to allude to a possible plea deal with federal prosecutors, saying that he hoped future events would provide the family “some peace of mind.”
According to many legal experts, the federal government’s evidence against him was solid, and a conviction at trial could have resulted in a life sentence.
Although there are still other judicial actions relating to Mr. Floyd’s death, the plea will spare Minneapolis residents from the prospect of another trial.
Mr. Floyd was a grandpa, a former rapper, and a security guard who had lost his job at a nightclub at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak when it closed. Mr. Chauvin was fired, and three other cops at the scene were arrested after the terrible footage of him struggling for oxygen beneath an emotionless Mr. Chauvin sparked protests around the world.
In a case expected to go to trial in January, federal prosecutors have charged the other policemen — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao — with violating Mr. Floyd’s civil rights.
Mr. Chauvin’s guilty plea may come as pleasant news to that police who had hoped to have him removed from their combined federal trial for fear of prejudicing the jury. After responding to a 911 call from a convenience store clerk who stated Mr. Floyd had used a false $20 money to buy cigarettes, the police face state charges of assisting and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
