The Minnesota judge who heard Derek Chauvin’s trial last month has determined what aggravating factors could lead to a longer sentence for the former Minneapolis police officer.
At a trial that concluded in April and captured national attention, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd — a Black man who was killed while in police custody.
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill wrote in an order published Wednesday that he’s considering four aggregating factors that will be examined to determined the severity of Chauvin’s sentence, Minneapolis’ Star Tribune reported.
“Those factors are that Chauvin ‘abused a position of trust and authority’ as a police officer, that he ‘treated George Floyd with particular cruelty,’ that children were present when Floyd was pinned to the pavement at 38th and Chicago for more than 9 minutes until he died, and that he committed the crime with ‘active participation’ of others, namely three fellow officers,” according to the Star Tribune.
National Public Radio reported that Chauvin’s conviction of second-degree murder — the most serious of the three guilty verdicts — could land the former police officer in prison for up to four decades, “but state sentencing guidelines recommend 12.5 years in prison for a conviction on unintentional second-degree murder for someone with no criminal history.”
Citing aggravating factors, prosecutors argued for a sentence longer than 12.5 years, according to NPR.
- “Restraining George Floyd in the prone position with the weight of three police officers on him for a prolonged period did not create a vulnerability that was exploited to cause death; it was the actual mechanism causing death,” wrote Cahill, reported NPR.
- “The slow death of George Floyd occurring over approximately six minutes of his positional asphyxia was particularly cruel in that Mr. Floyd was begging for his life and obviously terrified by the knowledge that he was likely to die but during which the defendant objectively remained indifferent to Mr. Floyd’s pleas,” the judge also wrote, the Star Tribune reported.
Chauvin’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 25, while the three other fired Minneapolis police officers — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who were on the scene when Floyd was killed — will be tried on Aug. 23, according to the Star Tribune.