Minnesota AG asks for severe sentence for Derek Chauvin – Everett Post

Everett

(MINNEAPOLIS) – Minnesota’s attorney general has filed for a severe sentence for former police officer Derek Chauvin for acting “particularly cruelly” in the death of George Floyd.

Attorney General Keith Ellison urged Judge Peter Cahill, in a legal brief filed Friday, to impose a tougher sentence based on “five aggravating factors” that “support an upward penalty.”

Chauvin was found guilty of second degree murder, third degree murder, and second degree manslaughter by a jury on April 20 for the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. His sentencing is scheduled for June 25th.

Chauvin is convicted of second degree murder because it is the most serious charge under state law. However, Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines suggest that chauvin is more likely to be obtained up to 15 years due to the lack of a prior criminal record.

Ellison outlined five reasons for considering heightened factors for a higher sentence: Floyd was a “particularly vulnerable victim” based on his prone position on the spot, which posed a “significant risk of positional suffocation.” He was treated with cruelty, and officials did not do so, in order not to listen to his air screams, “Chauvin abused his position of authority” and Chauvin “committed the crime as part of a group of three or more people who were all actively involved in the crime “.

After all, four of the people who witnessed Floyd’s death were minors, one of whom was just 9 years old.

“Mr.. Floyd has been treated with particular cruelty … The defendant maintained his position on Mr. Floyd even when Mr. Floyd yelled that he was in pain, even though Mr. Floyd exclaimed 27 times that he could not breathe, and…” even when Mr. Floyd said the defendant’s actions killed him, “wrote Ellison.

Ellison pointed out that Floyd called his mother nearly a dozen times and yet Chauvin “continued to push his knee into Mr. Floyd’s neck and upper back until he stopped talking or breathing and had no pulse.”

“So the defendant didn’t just cause physical pain. He caused Mr. Floyd mental health problems in the last moments of his life and left Mr. Floyd helpless as he pushed the last traces of life out of Mr. Floyd’s body, ”added Ellison.

He argued that any of the five aggravating factors would be sufficient to warrant an upward penalty, and in this case “all five apply.”

Chauvin’s defense attorney Eric Nelson responded in a separate file on Friday for a tougher sentence.

Nelson argued that Chauvin had “legal authority” in the officers’ encounter with Floyd and was empowered under Minnesota law to “use reasonable force”.

He also denied the argument that Floyd was “particularly vulnerable,” stating that he was over six feet deep, muscular, weighed over 200 pounds and, despite being handcuffed, “began to actively protest the arrest” when officers Thomas K. . Lane and J Alexander Kueng tried to put him in their patrol car.

Nelson also countered the state case that Chauvin “inflicted pain free of charge” on Floyd, saying, “Mr. Floyd’s attack came in a very short space of time, with no threats or mockery such as raising a gun and pulling the trigger … and ended when EMS finally responded to the officers’ calls. “