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Chauvin gets 22.5 years; Floyd family gets life

BOSTON — Former police officer Derek Chauvin may be behind bars for the next 22 and a half years, but the family of George Floyd got a life sentence.

“Our family is forever broken, and one thing we cannot get back is George Floyd,” said the nephew of Floyd, Brandon Williams.

It’s the case the world has been following for 13 months exactly, and now a sense of closure with the historic sentencing, but George Floyd’s family says it provides accountability, but not justice.

Floyd’s family repeatedly demanded the maximum sentence for Chauvin. Instead, the judge added an extra 10 years to the state’s sentencing guidelines, but less time than the 30 years requested by prosecutors.

“This is the longest sentence that a police officer has ever been sentenced to in the state of Minnesota,” said Floyd Family Attorney Ben Crump. “But this should not be the exception when a Black person is killed by police - it should be the norm.”

Chauvin addressed the court for the first time with somewhat of a cryptic message about more information to come out later so we asked Angela Onwuachi-Willig, dean of Boston University’s School of Law, what is the likelihood of an appeal.

“It’s unlikely an appeal would be granted,” she said.

Chauvin also offered condolences in court, but it did not answer the family’s questions.

“What were you thinking? What was going through your head when you had your knee on my brother’s neck?” Floyd’s brother, Terence Floyd, asked Chauvin.

Chauvin also faces other legal issues, including a federal indictment on all four officers connected to Floyd’s death.

Chauvin also was separately charged in an incident in which he allegedly used unreasonable force on a 14-year-old in 2017.

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