Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges. This did not come as a surprise. Jury intimidation likely played a role and made any sort of impartiality impossible, as the jurors had reason to fear for their lives despite anonymity if they ruled in favor of Chauvin. What is more of a surprise, and what may come as a disappointment for the left is, is that Mr. Chauvin will likely not spend much time in jail despite the apparent severity of three murder charges, one of them 2nd degree. It is likely he will spend only between 4-10 years in jail total given an absence of priors, and being a cop works in his favor too in this regard, although he will have to be segregated from other prisoners.
Come to think of it, this is a really good deal, especially compared to many non-violent crimes such as racketeering, mail fraud, money laundering, or wire fraud. Madoff for example was sentenced to 150 years despite not killing anyone. Ross Ulbricht was given two life sentences (I guess in case he is reincarnated or something) plus 40 years for good measure in case life extension becomes a possibility, despite also not killing anyone (although he was guilty of attempted murder). Gal Vallerius, aka “OxyMonster,” a moderator of the defunct darkweb Dream Market, got 20 years for drug trafficking despite not killing anyone. Financier Allen Stanford was sentenced in 2012 for 110 years for orchestrating a $7 billion fraud. So to put to put it another way, Chauvin would had had to have killed 15-20 people to equal one Madoff or 30 or more to equal a Ross Ulbricht. It is evident that unless you are convicted of something like terrorism or 1st degree murder, the sentence length for violent crime drops precipitously and sentences can be surprisingly short, whereas non-violent crime tends to have really, really long sentences potentially if drugs or fraud is involved.
Part of the reason why non-violent crimes have such long sentences is how charges and counts are easily stacked. For example, someone may be charged of 4 counts of money laundering and charged with 7 counts of wire fraud, but it’s not like someone can be convicted of repeatedly killing the same person, nor does killing someone incur multiple charges as easily as wire or mail fraud (which is often accompanied by money laundering charges). That alone can equate to hundreds of years if convicted on all counts. Often, a plea deal may be arranged to either remove some of the charges or the sentences are allowed to run concurrently instead of consecutively, but a long prison sentence may still be expected. It is evident financial crimes and drug crimes are taken very seriously, often because of the externalities involved, whereas killing someone tends to have fewer externalities beyond the affected family.