Then Attorney General Bill Barr rejected a plea bargain agreed to by local and federal prosecutors and the attorneys for Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on the neck of George Floyd, causing his death, NBC News reports.
Chauvin had agreed to plead guilty to third-degree murder charges for his role in the death of Floyd, which happened May 25, 2020. Chauvin and three other officers were fired by the Minneapolis Police Force in the days after the homicide.
The New York Times reported that Chauvin had agreed to at least a ten-year prison sentence, but Barr rejected the deal claiming that he believed protesters would believe the sentence was too lenient. Local authorities had scheduled a press conference to announce the deal, but the Attorney General would not sign off on it.
Minneapolis erupted in protests, sometimes violent, after Floyd’s death, which had been caught on camera and broadcast around the world. The protests led to the renewed focus on the Black Lives Matter movement, which spurred protests and social action around the world.
Chauvin is now awaiting trial, and he has not accepted any plea bargain that may have been offered in the meantime.