Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck in 2020, has been transferred to a federal prison in Texas, nearly nine months after he was stabbed in an Arizona facility.
Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights, as well as second-degree murder. He is concurrently serving 21-year and 22-and-a-half-year prison sentences on the respective charges.
The death of Floyd, who was Black, triggered racial justice protests across the U.S. in 2020, with demands for American police reform and justice for those involved in the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis.
Chauvin, 47, has been transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring, the Federal Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Before the move to the Texas low-security prison, Chauvin was housed in Arizona’s medium-security facility, FCI Tucson. While there, Chauvin was stabbed 22 times with a makeshift blade by a former gang leader and one-time FBI informant in November 2023. He was badly wounded.
Chauvin’s attacker, John Turscak, told investigators he targeted Chauvin because of his notoriety for killing Floyd. Turscak said he would have killed Chauvin had prison officers not intervened.
Floyd died on May 25, 2020, when Chauvin used his knee to pin the Black man’s neck to the ground for nine-and-a-half minutes. A bystander filmed Chauvin and two other officers as they held Floyd to the pavement. In the video, Floyd can be heard telling police, “I can’t breathe” — his last words, which would later serve as an unforgettable call to action for international racial justice protests for years to come.
Floyd, who was 46 years old, was detained by police after a convenience store employee told authorities he purchased cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.
Chauvin’s expected release is in 2038.
He is attempting to overturn his federal conviction, to which he pleaded guilty, with his lawyers claiming they have new evidence showing he did not cause Floyd’s death.
Another police officer who was involved in Floyd’s death, Thomas Lane, was released from a Colorado federal prison on Tuesday, the AP reported. Lane, who is white, held Floyd’s legs down while Chauvin kneeled on his neck. Lane served a three-year sentence for aiding and abetting manslaughter.
Minneapolis officer J. Alexander Kueng, who is Black, knelt on Floyd’s back while officer Tou Thao, who is Hmong American, kept bystanders from intervening during the nearly 10-minute restraint. Keung was sentenced to serve a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence. Thao was sentenced to serve four years and nine months.
Lane is the first of the four officers involved in Floyd’s death to be released from prison.