COMMUNITY Social Justice Thread: R.I.P. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor & now Tyre Nichols
- Thread starter StringerBell
- Start date
Mister
Ignorance can be remedied. Stupidity is incurable.
Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin appears to be on the verge of pleading guilty to violating George Floyd ’s civil rights, according to a notice sent out Monday by the court’s electronic filing system.
The federal docket entry shows a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday for Chauvin to change his current not guilty plea in the case. These types of notices typically indicate a defendant is planning to plead guilty, though nothing will be official until it happens in court. The court system also sent out instructions for media to attend the hearing.
Chauvin has already been convicted of state murder and manslaughter charges for pinning his knee against Floyd’s neck as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe during a May 25, 2020 arrest. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in that case.
He and three other former officers — Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao — were set to go to trial in late January on federal charges alleging they willfully violated Floyd’s rights.
A message left with Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, was not immediately returned. The U.S. Attorney’s Office had no comment.
The information sent out Monday gives no indication that the other officers intend to plead guilty. Messages left for attorneys for Kueng and Thao were not immediately returned. Earl Gray, the attorney for Lane, is currently in a trial in the unrelated case involving the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright.
Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, said any potential prison time that Chauvin would face in the federal case would likely be served at the same time as his state sentence — but the federal term has the potential to be much longer, up to life in prison.
By claiming responsibility, Chauvin can get a shorter federal sentence. It’s also possible that he could arrange to serve his sentence in the federal system, which would benefit him since he has been in solitary confinement in Minnesota and he would have more options federally. Still, Osler said, transferring a defendant to the federal system happens rarely.
Osler, who has been following the case, said under federal sentencing guidelines, Chauvin could get a federal penalty ranging from 27 years to more than 33 years in prison if he gets credit for claiming responsibility. Osler stressed that the guidelines are not mandatory, but estimated Chauvin would be sentenced toward the lower end of the range. Unlike the Minnesota state system, in which a defendant with good behavior only serves two-thirds of their sentence in prison, the federal system has no parole.
StringerBell
OG
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Race Jones
gangster. grace. alchemy
IP360
Doctorate & Ph.D in Bootyology
Disanthrope
Inconvenient truth + Necessary evil
My boy Roddie aint making it no 30 years. That sad dog is gonna die of misery way before parole
