U.S. attorneys asked the court that Chauvin’s sentence run concurrently with his 22.5-year state sentence. As part of a deal with prosecutors, Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to federal charges of depriving Floyd of his civil rights. He could have faced up to life in prison had he been convicted at trial. Prosecutors had sought a 25-year prison sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights, followed by five years of supervised release. His lawyer had asked for 20 years. The US Bureau of Prisons will decide in which facility Chauvin will be housed. Sarah Greenman, an assistant professor of criminology at Hamline University, said life in federal prison is considered better than in state facilities. “It’s less crowded in federal prisons, there are fewer security concerns than in a state facility,” he said, adding that there are fewer violent offenders in federal prisons, which also have bigger budgets. Chauvin was convicted in June 2021 of state charges of second-degree manslaughter, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the May 2020 killing of Floyd, an attack captured on video that sparked a national outcry over police brutality and a account of racial justice in America. He appealed against his conviction. Video from a Minneapolis street shows Chauvin impassively kneeling on the 46-year-old black man’s neck and back as he was handcuffed and laid in the street for more than 9 minutes, gasping for air and telling Minneapolis officers, “I can” don’t breathe ». According to a court document filed by his attorney in late June, Chauvin is spending most of his life in solitary confinement in a maximum-security state prison. Three other former officers were found guilty by a federal jury in February of violating Floyd’s rights on May 25, 2020. One man, Thomas Lane, pleaded guilty to state charges. The trial of Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng is scheduled to begin in October. CNN’s Paul Vercammen reported from St. Paul of Minnesota and Steve Almasy reported and wrote in Atlanta.
