With just weeks to go before the official sentencing of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd, prosecutors are requesting a 30-year prison sentence for the former officer according to a sentencing memo filed Wednesday.
But Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson has requested a new trial, probation and time served or a lesser sentence for the disgraced former police officer. Court documents filed in Hennepin County Wednesday show Chauvin’s defense has asked for a new trial, change of venue and a Schwartz hearing to ensure “he receives a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
“Mr. Chauvin asks the Court to look beyond its findings, to his background, his lack of criminal history, his amenability to probation, to the unusual facts of this case, and to his being a product of a ‘broken’ system,” Nelson wrote. “Mr. Chauvin’s offense is best described as an error made in good faith reliance of his own experience as a police officer and the training he had received – not the intentional commission of an illegal act.”
Sentencing guidelines call for Derek Chauvin to face a minimum of 12.5 years in prison, but the aggravated factors had the potential of increasing his sentence to up to 40 years. Thirty years is “twice the upper end of the presumptive sentencing range,” according to the memo filed with the District Court of Hennepin County on Wednesday. It “would properly account for the profound impact of the defendant’s conduct on the victim, the victim’s family, and the community,” the state argued.
Chauvin was convicted on April 20 of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. Derek Chauvin is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25.
Floyd was killed one year ago on May 25, when Chauvin callously killed him by kneeling on his neck with his knee for nine minutes and 29 seconds.
