Chauvin is serving both a federal and state sentence in connection with the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.
When Elon Musk recently shared a snippet of a video by The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro suggesting that President Trump should issue a federal pardon to Derek Chauvin—the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the murder of 2020 murder of George Floyd, that set off a chain of protests against police brutality and racial injustice across the nation and world—many people had questions. What does that mean? Would Chauvin go free? Is Trump considering it?
Shapiro has even gone so far as to launch an online petition to gain signatures in support of the pardon.
However President Trump, thus far, has indicated that he’s not considering a pardon for Chauvin, saying on March 7 that, “No, I haven’t even heard about it,” when asked if he was looking into a pardon for the officer.
Derek Chauvin is concurrently serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence on state charges for 2nd- and 3rd-degree murder and a 21-year federal charge for depriving George Floyd of his civil rights. In May 2020, Chauvin knelt on the neck of Floyd for over 9 minutes in the now famous case; Floyd had been stopped by Minneapolis police for allegedly attempting to pay for items with a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin was sentenced in 2021 for the state charges and in 2022 for the federal charges and is currently housed at a prison in Big Spring, Texas.
In the event President Trump did consider and actually pardon Chauvin, he would not go free, but would instead be moved from Texas to a state prison in Minnesota. He would still be required to serve the time for the state charges. In a statement to MPR (Minnesota Public Radio), Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison made that point clear.
“Trump has no power to pardon Chauvin’s state conviction. None. The only conceivable purpose would be to express yet more disrespect for George Floyd and more disrespect for the rule of law.”
The family of George Floyd feels similarly. While speaking with CNN, Philonse Floyd shared how the family would be hurt by a presidential pardon for Chauvin. “It is so personal. We saw our brother tortured to death.” He continued. “If he does this, it will set America back 400 years. The ones pushing for this are trying to remove any power Black Americans have to get justice.”
There’s some irony that Shapiro started the call for a federal pardon for George Floyd. In 2020, after the video surfaced of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, Shapiro (along with Trump) vehemently spoke against Chauvin’s actions and suggested that he should be jailed. Shapiro called his actions egregious and believed Chauvin should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Currently, Chauvin will remain in prison until at least 2038.
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