2 years ago
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U.S.|Biden calls long prison sentence for Derek Chauvin ‘appropriate.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/us/biden-calls-long-prison-sentence-for-derek-chauvin-appropriate.html
June 25, 2021, 7:10 p.m. ET
Asked for his reaction to Derek Chauvin being sentenced Friday to 22 and a half years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, President Biden described it as “appropriate.”
Speaking to reporters after meeting at the White House with Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, Mr. Biden said, “I don’t know all the circumstances that were considered but it seems to me, under the guidelines, that seems to be appropriate.”
Mr. Biden has pushed for Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would ban the police’s use of chokeholds, impose restrictions on deadly force and make it easier to prosecute officers for wrongdoing.
But the bill is stalled while Democrats and Republicans spar over a series of issues, including a measure that would alter a legal shield known as qualified immunity that protects police officers in brutality cases.
After Mr. Chauvin was convicted in April, Mr. Biden promised Mr. Floyd’s family — whom he invited to the White House — to pass a police reform bill in his name, initially aiming to sign it by the first anniversary of Mr. Floyd’s death on May 25.
English (US) ·