Defense lawyers for a British national facing trial later this month for helping the Islamic State group torture and behead American hostages are seeking to block testimony from a Kurdish girl held as a slave by the group. The girl, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, was abducted at age 15 from Kurdistan in August 2014 and held by the Islamic State. The defendant, El Shafee Elsheikh, is charged with playing a key role in Mueller's abduction, ransom and eventual death, along with three other Americans: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig.
one of the things that judges look for is whether a person takes any accountability, responsibility for their actions or show insight into what they may have done differently. they re also looking for expressions of remorse or empathy or even an i m sorry. but we didn t get that at all. in fact, in that defense memo, the defense says that chauvin was a product of a broken system. they say he was simply doing his job. if he knew he was committing a crime, he wouldn t have done it. he was just following his training and experience. and he also wrote that this death was relatively quick, which was really interesting because judge cahill gave us some insight what he is thinking about when he wrote the memo four aggravaing factors. he said this was particularly cruel give on the fact that george floyd was begging for his life. it must have been terrifying. it took a long time. he also talked in his memo about the fact that chauvin abused his
position of trust as a police officer. so, the audience for that defense memo clearly wasn t judge cahill and i think that chauvin lost his opportunity to maybe have judge cahill take that into consideration and give him a lesser sentence, which is not going to be probation or less than the guidelines and i do believe he will be depart upward. mary, a question about what we re going to hear today. the victim impact statements. chauvin himself is allowed to speak, although that appears unlikely. do the statements themselves actually aifect the sentencing or will judge cahill walk into the courtroom knowing the sentence he is going to give derek chauvin? judge cahill knows what he will give derek chauvin. the impact statements will have an impact on judge cahill as they will on all of us. this is an opportunity for george floyd s loved ones to uctaabout how this meant and how this has affected them. the fact that george floyd was
prison. we ll then hear from the defense. they re arguing for time served and probation saying that derek chauvin is 45 years old and he would be a threat in prison and saying he was the product of a bad system and then we know the sentencing guidelines which suggests that someone like derek chauvin for this second degree murder charged with typically face between 10 1/2 to 15 years in prison. so, there s a lot of discretion here over what will exactly happen. we don t know what that number will ultimately be. but we do plan to get a sense of that after those statements from the defense and prosecution and we ll hear the judge, judge cahill explain his sentence and then deliver that sentence and that s all coming up as you mentioned in about a half hour. mary, i mean, you know the county as the former chief public defender. you know this judge. based on what you know about the case and the people involved and the defense memo that was submitted in this case, what kind of sentence are