Feds want 25 years for Chauvin for violating Floyd's rights

Source: Associated Press

By AMY FORLITI
an hour ago

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Wednesday to sentence a former Minneapolis officer to 25 years for violating the rights of George Floyd, saying Derek Chauvin’s actions were cold-blooded and needless as he knelt on the Black man’s neck while Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe.

Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to violating Floyd’s rights, admitting for the first time that he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck — even after he became unresponsive — resulting in Floyd’s death. Chauvin, who is white, admitted he willfully deprived Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, including unreasonable force by a police officer, during the May 2020 arrest.

Floyd’s killing sparked immediate protests in Minneapolis that spread around the U.S. and beyond in a reckoning over police brutality and discrimination involving people of color.

As part of his plea agreement, Chauvin also pleaded guilty to violating the rights of a then-14-year-old Black boy who he restrained in an unrelated case in 2017.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-politics-minneapolis-race-and-ethnicity-aa2d4270d9ea110db2ee0aa1bc095304