Prosecutors plan on seeking a harsher sentence for Derek Chauvin, one of the men who is charged with murdering George Floyd.
According to legal documents acquired by TMZ, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison made Judge Peter Cahill aware of his decision to push for a harsher sentence for Chauvin for many reasons.
He says that for one, Chauvin’s actions were “especially heinous” because he killed Floyd in front of children and in a “particularly vulnerable state”. Ellison also said how Floyd had repeatedly told Chauvin that he could not breathe. Ellison argues that Chauvin’s failure to listen to Floyd says that he could not breathe was proof that he was treated with “particular cruelty.”
Ellison states that Chauvin was heartless for killing Floyd, for ignoring the people at the scene who witnessed the murder, and for not offering medical assistance before Floyd’s death.
Ellison’s decision to push for a more severe sentence comes after new bodycam footage was released. The new footage showed George Floyd pleading with officers not to shoot him. Floyd’s family also filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the Minneapolis Police Department and the City of Minneapolis.
“The more video evidence you see, the more unjustifiable George Floyd’s torture and death at the hands of the police becomes,” the family’s attorney Ben Crump said in the statement. “Although the allegation against George was for a non-violent offense involving a $20 bill, the police officers approached him with guns drawn, simply because he was a Black man. As this video shows, he never posed any threat. The officers’ contradictions continue to build. If not for the videos, the world might never have known about the wrongs committed against George Floyd.”
Chauvin is currently facing 40 years in prison. He has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. The other officers who were complicit in Floyd’s murder, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao, were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
