Derek Chauvin pleads guilty to violating George Floyd’s rights
- The ex-police officer is likely to extend his prison sentence after an earlier conviction for the black man’s murder
- Chauvin was seen in videos kneeling on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, sparking nationwide protests in the US
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a federal court to charges he violated George Floyd’s civil rights, likely extending his prison sentence after his earlier conviction for the black man’s murder.
Chauvin, 45, appeared in the US District Court in St Paul, Minnesota, in an orange jumpsuit to waive his right to a trial by changing his plea to guilty in an agreement with prosecutors.
A state judge had already sentenced Chauvin to 22½ years in prison earlier this year after a jury convicted him for the 2020 murder of Floyd, and he has since been held in solitary confinement in a maximum-security Minnesota prison.
Chauvin, who is white, was seen in videos recorded by horrified onlookers kneeling on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes in a brutal arrest on a Minneapolis street corner on May 25, 2020, igniting one of the largest protest movements ever seen in the United States.
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Federal prosecutors told the court on Wednesday that the sentencing guidelines call for Chauvin to spend 20 to 25 years in prison, according to Minneapolis news channel WCCO-TV.
They said that under the plea agreement they would ask the judge for 25 years, with the sentence to run concurrently, meaning Chauvin would extend his current prison term by about two years.
