Prof. Alan Rozenshtein Quoted by CNN About Talk of Derek Chauvin Pardon

Professor Alan Rozenshtein was quoted by CNN about conservative commentator Ben Shapiro publicly calling for the president to pardon former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for federal crimes related to George Floyd’s 2020 death. Shapiro’s effort to solicit a pardon for Chauvin, a white man convicted of murdering a Black man in a case that sparked massive nationwide protests over the way police treat people of color, comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to push back on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and what some see as gains made toward racial justice since Floyd’s death. However, legal experts concur that a pardon from a president would impact only Chauvin’s federal sentence. Prof. Rozenshtein said, “Practically speaking … even if he’s pardoned on the federal conviction, the state conviction continues.” He added that Chauvin is “still going to be in prison for the foreseeable future, and there’s nothing that a federal pardon can do about that.”