a position of trust and authority. and also the particular cruelty showing to george floyd. 270 months is 22 and a half years. derek chauvin is still facing federal charges in the death of george floyd, which could bring a much longer sentence. joining us now, are the lead prosecutors of the derek chauvin trial, jerry blackwell and steve schleicher. thank you both very much for joining us tonight. jerry blackwell, let me begin with you since this was your very first case as a prosecutor. this is the very first time you ve been involved in sentencing. and in effect, sending someone to prison. what was your reaction to the sentence? my reaction was a sense of peace, lawrence. i suppose it s a word i would use. a sense there had been a
everything i have done in the practice of law up to this point. and i was grateful to be able to serve this way. jerry blackwell and steve schleicher, one way to read that judge s memo today is a real commendation for your work in that courtroom. he adopted every bit of the evidence that you presented and adopted it beyond a reasonable doubt. thank you both very much for joining us, really appreciate it. thank you, lawrence. thank you. happy to be on. thank you. and coming up, attorney general merrick garland announced today that the justice department is suing the state of georgia to invalidate georgia s new election law. that s next. t, your home can be rebuilt, regardless of your limits. (customer) that s really something. (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum
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as you know, it s difficult to convict a police officer in the first place. and if you look at the history of police officers convicted of the unreasonable use of deadly force, this 22 1/2 years is right up there at the top of any officer ever convicted of this in the country. and the fact that the judge tacked on ten years on top of what would be a typical sentence of 12 1/2 years speaks both to the court s attempt to follow the guidelines and finding there are aggravating factors that justified an upward departure of ten plus years. so nothing will bring george floyd back, so no number of years will do that. but if we can do what we can in the law to approximate some kind of justice, i think that we can all feel good about the fact that there was a conviction and that the judge put it in the upper range of convictions of this sort ever in the history of america. steve schleicher, as a former
sort ever in the history of america. steve schleicher, as a former prosecutor and now special prosecutor, you ve been through sentencing sessions many times before. what did you expect going into this one? and how did it feel for you when you heard that 270 months from the judge? i suspect [inaudible] was born out. [inaudible] i think it was something that really resonated. and it s something that can only be appreciated for, i guess, from the position of people of actually felt a loss. especially with gianna talking about what she s lost with her father. i was particularly moved when