Chauvin Poised for Sentencing, Could Face Decades in Prison

After being held in solitary confinement for the last two months, Derek Chauvin will return to the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis where he was convicted in April to face sentencing that, by law, could be a maximum of forty years, reports the New York Times. Prosecutors are asking that Chauvin face 30 years in prison, while his defense team has requested probation. The sentencing hearing is expected to last at least an hour and to include statements from members of Floyd’s family, who may speak about how his death has affected them. Chauvin will be permitted to speak at his sentencing hearing, but legal experts said it was unlikely he would choose to do so. Any remarks, they said, could be considered in future federal court proceedings, where Chauvin faces additional charges, and might complicate an appeal of his state conviction.

Under Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines, the presumptive sentence for a person like Chauvin, who had no previous criminal history, is 12.5 years for second-degree murder, the most serious of the three charges he was convicted on. A jury also convicted him of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The judge who will decide Chauvin’s sentence, Peter A. Cahill, has already ruled that four “aggravating factors” apply in the case, which would allow Cahill to deliver a longer sentence than Minnesota’s guidelines call for. The judge found that Chauvin acted with particular cruelty; acted with the participation of three other individuals, who were fellow officers; abused his position of authority; and committed his crime in the presence of children.