Posted 5/15/2025

Derek Chauvin is a former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted for the murder of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, back in 2021. Specifically, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder, second-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to 22½ years in prison on the state level and 21 years on the federal level, to be served concurrently. The case involving Chauvin gained national attention, whereby the phrase "I can't breathe," uttered by George Floyd in his last moments, became synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, MAGA leaders are hoping that President Trump will pardon Chauvin. Ben Shapiro, a conservative commentator, has chimed in as well and launched a petition in hopes of pardoning Chauvin at pardonderek.com. Tucker Carlson said that Chauvin is in prison for a crime that he did not commit... Click Here.

Some have even argued that Floyd died as a result of having drugs in his system and that the 8 minutes and 46 seconds Chauvin knelt on his neck was inconsequential. In fact, once police bodycam footage was released, the actual time Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck was shown to be 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Chauvin has a checkered past and a pattern of using excessive force against people of color.

In 2006, Chauvin was one of six officers involved in the killing of Wayne Reyes, shot 23 times with 43 rounds fired in four seconds. Reyes was a member of the Chippewa tribe. Chauvin shot another man, an Alaskan Native American, in 2011; another man, a 21-year-old Black man, in 2008; and in 2017, Chauvin struck a 14-year-old Black boy in the head with his flashlight so hard he needed stitches and then knelt on his neck for 17 minutes. He pleaded guilty to federal charges in this case. The president does have the authority to pardon Chauvin for his federal crimes but not for his state crimes. That would require help from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. On June 4, 2020, some U.S. senators observed 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence, demonstrating exactly how long that is for someone to be kneeling on your neck.