A lot of people have been asking why I’ve focused on the pardon of Derek Chauvin. After all, he’s convicted on both federal charges as well as state charges.
There are a few reasons.
The first and most obvious reason is that there is a likelihood he serves less time if the federal charges are relieved because federal inmates can earn good-time credit that reduces sentences. That happens at a much lower rate at the federal level than it happens at the state level. With Chauvin’s concurrent sentences, he has roughly a 22.5-year sentence on state charges and 21 years on federal charges.
But under Minnesota state sentencing structure, inmates usually serve about two-thirds of their sentence behind bars and one third under supervised release. So he would serve roughly 15 years of the 22.5-year state sentence in actual confinement under the state charges, thus less time in jail.
But…
