Derek Chauvin Pleads Guilty to Violating George Floyd’s Rights
The New York Times
A federal prosecutor said he would ask a judge to sentence Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, to 25 years in prison, extending his state prison term by two and a half years.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a federal charge that he used his position as a Minneapolis police officer to violate George Floyd’s constitutional rights, a move expected to extend Mr. Chauvin’s time in prison beyond a decades-long state sentence for murdering Mr. Floyd.
Mr. Chauvin, 45, pleaded guilty in the U.S. courthouse in St. Paul, an appearance that was most likely among the longest periods he had spent outside a prison cell since a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in April. Since then, he has been held in solitary confinement in Minnesota’s only maximum-security prison, where he is allowed out of his 10-foot by 10-foot cell for one hour a day.
A federal prosecutor said in court that the government had reached a plea deal with Mr. Chauvin under which prosecutors would seek to have him imprisoned for 25 years. That sentence would run concurrently with his state sentence, meaning it would lengthen Mr. Chauvin’s prison term by about two and a half years.