Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer convicted of homicide George Freud, A black man was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison on Friday.

45-year-old Xiao Wan is is convicted In April, he pressed his knees on Freud’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes, resulting in second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter because the 46-year-old Freud was panting. Qi, unable to breathe and limp.

Bystander video Freud was arrested on suspicion of passing a forged 20-dollar bill in a corner store protest And it led to scattered violence in Minneapolis and other areas.

The judge’s excuse

On Friday, after Freud’s family and Xiao Wan’s mother provided emotional testimony, and Xiao Wan’s brief condolences, Judge Peter Cahill stated that the verdict was not based on emotion, sympathy or public opinion.

“I don’t try to be deep or smart, because now is not the right time,” Cahill said, explaining that his reasoning will be set out in a 22-page memo.

“My judgment is not based on public opinion. I am not based on trying to send any messages. The job of the judge of the court of first instance is to apply the law to specific facts and handle individual cases.”

The prosecutor demanded that Xiao Wan, who was convicted of second-degree murder, be sentenced to 30 years in prison. The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines recommend that Xiao Wen be sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison because he has no criminal record.

Aggravating factor

The 22 1/2-year sentence was 10 years longer than the state’s guidelines, and Cahill defended the longer sentence on the grounds of “aggravating factors”.

If he performs well, Xiao Wan can be released on parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence or about 15 years.

In his April ruling, Cahill found that the prosecutor had shown that there were four aggravating factors that could allow him to sentence him to a longer sentence than the sentencing guidelines stipulated.

The judge agreed that Xiao Wan had abused his position of trust and authority; he was particularly cruel to Freud, kneeling on his neck for more than 9 minutes, even though Freud declared “I can’t breathe”; he and three other police officers Crime together; and he committed murder in front of the children.

Defense lawyer Eric Nelson asked the judge to consider not only aggravating factors, but also mitigating factors. Nelson argued that Chauvin did not participate in the trial as a “professional criminal”, but lived a “honorable life.”

‘Very unusual sentence’

Al Jazeera reporter John Hendren reported in Minneapolis: “For a police officer, exceeding the criminal criteria for 10 years due to these aggravating circumstances is a very severe and very unusual sentence.”

“Very few police officers have been charged with murder. It is even rarer that a person is convicted,” Henderen added.

“This is the longest sentence imposed on a police officer in Minnesota’s history,” Freud’s family lawyer Ben Krump said after the sentence. “But when a black man is killed by police brutality, this should not be an exception. This should be the norm.”

Just before Crump’s speech, the civil rights leader Al Sharpton said the words “unfair. Justice is that George Floyd will live.”

Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University, told the Associated Press that since 2005, 11 non-federal legal officials, including Xiao Wan, have been convicted of murder after they died while on duty. Punishment of 9 people previously sentenced Chauvin’s age ranged from 6 years to 9 months, and then to prison life, with a median of 15 years.

Final appeal

At the beginning of the hearing, the prosecutor asked several members of Freud’s family to speak to the court. Freud’s 7-year-old daughter, Jaina, first appeared in the video.

“I have been asking him,” she said in the video, Xiao Wan dressed in a gray suit and tie sitting in front of the judge, with a blue mask on his nose and mouth. “My dad always brushes my teeth.” When asked what he would say to him if I could see him again, she said, “I miss you, I love you.”

Freud’s brother Terrence Floyd (Terrence Floyd) spoke directly to Xiao Wan in Friday’s victim impact statement.

“When you pressed your knees on my brother’s neck, what was in your mind?” he asked. He told the judge that he wanted the highest penalty. “We don’t want to see a slap on the wrist anymore. We have already experienced it.”

Chauvin’s mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, told the judge that she would always believe that her son was innocent. The two happiest moments in her life were when she gave birth to Chauvin and pinned his police badge when he joined the Minneapolis Police Department. On him.

“Derek replayed what happened that day over and over in his mind,” she said, her voice trembling sometimes. “I have seen the damage it caused him. I believe long sentences are not good for Derek. When you sentenced my son, you were sentenced to me.”

The Savannah then spoke to the judge, saying that he was unable to make a complete statement due to “other legal issues.”

“But very brief, I do want to express my condolences to Freud’s family,” he said. “There will be some other information that will arouse your interest in the future, and I hope things will give you peace of mind. Thank you.”