Former American Police Officer Derek Chauvin has on Friday been sentenced to 22 and half years imprisonment by a Minnesota court in the United States after he was found guilty of murdering George Floyd. The sentence has come more than a year after the homicide, which triggered large-scale protests against police brutality on people of colour across the United States. 

Chauvin has strangulated George Floyd to death on a Minneapolis street last year. Chauvin, who was then serving as a cop in the Minneapolis police department, was suspended from the duties and he was arrested in May 2020 and was facing charges of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd. He was under custody and the final sentencing was dictated by the court on Friday. 

Chauvin was brought to the courthouse amid high security and he was seen wearing a light grey suit and tie, white shirt, and a facemask. After hearing the victim impact statements from Floyd's family including the 7-year-old daughter of the deceased, Judge Peter Cahill found Chauvin guilty of murder and sentenced him to 22 and half years imprisonment. The final sentencing had drawn major attention across the globe as it was seen as a historic step forward towards addressing the police brutality and disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans. 

According to reports, under Minnesota law, Chauvin will have to serve two-thirds of his sentence or 15 years and he will be eligible for supervised release for the remaining seven and a half years. Chauvin, who is 45 now, will walk out of prison when he is 60. The sentence has exceeded the Minnesota sentencing guideline range of 10 years and eight months to 15 years for the crime. However, it has on the other side sparked disappointments on several African American activists as they say that they expected a sentence between 25 to 30 years for Chauvin. 

During his address to the courthouse concerning the sentence, Judge Cahill said the sentence was not based on emotion or public opinion. He said that he wanted to acknowledge the deep and tremendous pain that all of the families are feeling, especially the Floyd family. In his memorandum, Cahill wrote that two aggravating factors had warranted a harsher sentence - Chauvin had abused his position of trust and authority and he treated Floyd with "particular cruelty." 

The judge has further penned that Chauvin had treated Floyd without respect and denied him the dignity owed to all human beings. Cahill said that the former police officer objectively remained indifferent to Floyd's pleas even as Floyd was begging for his life and he was obviously terrified by the knowledge that he was likely to die. Speaking to reporters, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has said Chauvin's sentence was one of the longest given a former police officer for using unlawful deadly force in the United States. 

"Today's sentencing is not justice but it is another moment of real accountability on the road of justice", Ellison told the reporters outside the courthouse. The Attorney General, whose office had prosecuted the case, had called on law enforcement leaders around the United States to see it as a moment for reform. However, the Floyd family was disappointed by the verdict. Floyd's brother Rodney and his nephew Brandon Williams had criticized the sentence as a 'slap on the wrist'. 

"We were served a life sentence and we can't get George back", Williams said outside the courthouse. During the hearing inside the courthouse, Floyd's family members had demanded the highest sentence for Chauvin while the latter's mother had spoken about her son's innocence. Floyd's 7-year-old daughter Gianna had appeared in a video recording to deliver her victim impact statement. She said, "I ask about him (Floyd) all the time. My daddy always used to help me brush my teeth." She said she would say "I miss you and I love you" if she could see him again. Chauvin was listening to Gianna's statement. 

After members of Floyd's family delivered victim impact statements, Chavin stepped to the lectern beside his lawyer and said, "I want to give my condolences to the Floyd family". He said by facing the family members of Floyd. Chauvin's counsel hadn't fought the verdict and after the sentencing, Chauvin was accompanied by the police officers for further process of taking him to the prison and reports say that he would remain in a restricted housing unit separated from the general population at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Oak Park Heights. 

Outside the courthouse, there were mixed emotions over the sentence as some had welcomed it and others had voiced against the judge's verdict. Floyd's sister Bridgett, who founded the George Floyd Memorial Foundation, said in a statement that the sentence shows that matters of police brutality are finally being taken seriously. She added, "We have a long way to go and many changes to make before Black and brown people finally feel like they are being treated fairly and humanely by law enforcement in this country." 

Floyd family attorney Ben Crump, in a statement, said the historic sentence brings the family and country one step closer to healing by delivering closure and accountability. He said, "With Chauvin's sentence, we take a significant step forward- something that was unimaginable a very short time ago." Several people had assembled at the place where George Floyd was killed and they watched the court sentencing on their mobile phones. The entire country and the court had watched the sentencing event and the judge had given weight to the charges against Chauvin by stating that he had killed Floyd with particular cruelty. 

George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, in the broad daylight in a street of Minneapolis by Chauvin. Chauvin was kneeling on the neck of the handcuffed Floyd while the latter can be heard screaming 'I can't breathe'. Chauvin had knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes and the homicide had caused massive outrage across the United States and around the world. Floyd's death and his final words 'I can't breathe' had become the root cause of the rise of the largest people movement in the United States in decades. 

The protests against police brutality were incessant across the country and thousands had occupied the streets with the demand of reforming policing in America. Chauvin and three other officers in connection to Floyd's murder were suspended from the duties and taken under custody. Chauvin was pleaded guilty to the charges and he was convicted of murdering Floyd. He has now been sentenced to 22 and a half years imprisonment while the other three officers are due to face trial next year on charges of aiding Floyd's murder. At the White House, US President Joe Biden, amid hosting his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani, said the sentence of Chauvin seemed appropriate.