Derek Chauvin Sentencing: Celebs Speak Out

The sentencing of Derek Chauvin to 22 ½ years in prison on Friday (June 22) for the murder of George Floyd elicited a number of responses, many of which were of disappointment that the former Minneapolis policeman was not sentenced to the maximum.

Judge Peter Cahill followed Minnesota sentencing guidelines in giving Chauvin prison time for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But there are those who felt that because of the egregious nature of his crime, he should have been given far more time behind bars.

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King III was dissatisfied and tweeted his dismay when Cahill handed down the sentence.

Another popular TV judge, Glenda Hatchett, tweeted about the disparity in the sentence for the officer who shot and killed Philando Castile. She represented his family when the suburban Minneapolis policeman shot him to death while in the passenger seat of his car in 2016.

Tina Knowles Lawson, comparing Chauvin’s sentence to that of her nephew on a marijuana conviction called for change in the system.

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay made it simple: She called Chauvin a murderer.

See what other celebrities had to say below.