translated from Spanish: Former PoliceMan Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder of George Floyd

Chauvin, for whom the prosecution had asked for 30 years in prison, has approached Floyd’s family ahead of the reading of his sentence to show them his condolences and hope they will get “some peace” after all. The twelve members of the people’s jury noted in April that Chauvin was guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter for Floyd’s death in May 2020.Before the verdict was known, Judge Cahill had already denied the defense’s latest attempt to have a new trial held on the grounds that both the people’s jury that in April he convicted Chauvin of all charges of murder for Floyd’s death as the process had been flawed. Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, argued that his client had not been entitled to a fair trial, as, among other issues, the people’s jury “acted improperly” throughout the trial because of “threats” and “intimidation,” as well as the “racially motivated pressure” of the case. Floyd was arrested in May 2020 outside an establishment for using a counterfeit bill to pay for a pack of cigarettes. During the operation, he was handcuffed and placed on the ground above his chest. Chauvin stuck his knee on the victim’s neck for nine minutes, despite warnings that he could not breathe. His death, recorded in a video that went around the world, generated a wave of outrage globally, with mobilizations and marches that sometimes led to riots, and put back on the table the racism of American institutions.

Original source in Spanish