Prosecutors in the George Floyd murder case are seeking a harsher sentence for the ex-Minneapolis cop charged with his death.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says Derek Chauvin deserves the maximum sentence because he killed Floyd in front of kids, TMZ reports.
Ellison says in legal docs obtained by the outlet that Floyd was in a “particularly vulnerable” state because he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by several officers while repeatedly telling Chauvin “I can’t breathe.” He also called out for his dead mother.
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Ellison accuses Chauvin of treating Floyd with “particular cruelty.” He ignored onlookers who pleaded with him to acknowledge Floyd’s distress as he pressed his knee on his neck for nearly 9 minutes during an arrest on May 25, theGRIO previously reported.
Chauvin was initially charged with third degree murder, which was later increased to second degree murder by Ellison. He is facing up to 40 years in prison if convicted on his second-degree murder charge.
Floyd’s family lawyered-up with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, and filed a federal civil lawsuit in June against the city of Minneapolis and the officers involved in Floyd’s death, including J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Kiernan Lane and Tou Thao. They have each been charged with second-degree aiding and abetting felony murder and second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter, per ABC News.
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Appearing on CNN, Crump said the family “intends on holding Derek Chauvin fully accountable in every aspect, criminal and civil.”
“It wasn’t just the knee of Derek Chauvin that killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, it was the knee of the entire police department,” Crump stated. “Because when you have that kind of culture and behavior of a police department, it is foreseeable that something like this is going to happen.”
Despite being fired and charged for second degree murder, Chauvin, 44, is reportedly still eligible for his pension. He could potentially receive a total of $1.5 million as part of his package, should he formally file for retirement once he turns 55.
A trial date for the four officers is scheduled for March 8, 2021.
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