Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for violating George Floyd's civil rights, reports CBS News.
Chauvin, who pleaded guilty back in December, will be required to pay restitution. Also, he received credit for seven months off of the 21-year sentence for time served last year.
According to the terms of his plea deal, Chauvin admitted for the first time that he kept his knee on Floyd's neck which led to his death. He also admitted that he “willfully deprived Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure” and that he “violated the rights of a then-14-year-old Black boy whom he restrained in an unrelated case in 2017.”
U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson said that Chauvin "must be held responsible" for his actions, including destroying the lives of the other three officers on the scene who were involved in Floyd's death during sentencing.
"I really don't know why you did what you did," the judge said in his remarks. "To put your knee on a person's neck until they expired is simply wrong. … Your conduct is wrong and it is offensive."
When his sentence was handed down, Chauvin wished Floyd's children "all the best in their lives" and that they have "excellent guidance in becoming good adults," reported CBS Minnesota.
Currently, Chauvin is appealing his murder conviction, arguing that “jurors were intimidated by the protests that followed and prejudiced by heavy pretrial publicity.”
Philonise Floyd, George’s brother, asked the judge for a life sentence, adding he suffered from nightmares since his brother's tragic death.
The other three former officers who were at the fatal scene, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Keung, and Thomas Lane were convicted in February on federal civil rights related to Floyd's killing.
Their sentencing dates have not been set.
