Former American police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted of the murder of George Floyd, was sentenced to 21 years in prison on federal charges on Thursday, 7 July.
Federal prosecutors, however, had sought a 25-month sentence.
Chauvin had pleaded guilty in December 2021 to violating the civil rights of Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, whose brutal murder by police officials triggered the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the United States.
"I really don't know why you did what you did," US District Court Judge Paul Magnuson said while delivering the sentence, according to AFP.
"But you must be substantially punished," he added.
Although the ex-cop still hasn't apologised for the murder, he reportedly addressed Floyd's children at the hearing and wished them the best, The Associated Press reported.
Chauvin is already serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence under state murder charges, for which he was sentenced to by a Minneapolis court in June 2021.
The state and the federal charges will now run together.
However, Chauvin will be allowed to serve his sentence in a federal prison, instead of the Minnesota state penitentiary, where he has been in solitary confinement so far.
George Floyd's Murder
In May 2020, Chauvin was seen on video thrusting his knee on Floyd’s neck for over eight-and-a-half minutes, eventually killing him.
He was arrested on 29 May 2020 and charged with murder.
The video went viral on social media, where Floyd can be seen pleading, “I can’t breathe.”
Floyd had been handcuffed for allegedly using a fake $20-bill to buy cigarettes. He was accused of refusing to get into a squad car and “intentionally falling down”, saying he was claustrophobic and struggling to breathe, according to the complaint.
Chauvin was the first officer to be put on trial among the other three – Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J Alexander Kueng – who were accused of aiding and abetting murder.
(With inputs from AFP and The Associated Press.)
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