For a defendant like Mr. Chauvin with zero criminal history points, the guidelines and presumptive range for unintentional second-degree murder — the most serious charge of which Mr. Chauvin was found guilty by the jury and on which he is being convicted and sentenced by this Court — is 128 to 180 months, with the presumptive sentence being 150 months.
Consideration of a sentence outside the presumptive guidelines range involves a two-stage process:
(1) In the first stage, either a jury or the district court must make a factual finding that there are one or more aggravating factors present in the commission of the crime apart from the prima facie elements of the charged crime.
(2) In the second stage, the district court is required to explain why the presence of any such aggravating factors creates a substantial and compelling reason to impose a sentence outside the presumptive guidelines range.
As to the first stage, at the conclusion of the trial and after return of the jury’s verdicts, Mr. Chauvin agreed to submit the issue of the existence of aggravated sentencing factors to this Court for decision.
The State had urged the Court to find the existence of five aggravated sentencing factors in light of the evidence presented during the three-week trial between March 29 and April 15, 2021. In the Court’s Verdict and Findings of Fact Regarding Aggravated Sentencing Factors, this Court found that the evidence at trial proved beyond a reasonable doubt the following four aggravated sentencing factors:
(i) That Mr. Chauvin abused a position of trust and authority;
(ii) That Mr. Chauvin treated George Floyd with particular cruelty;
This Court found that the fifth factor urged by the State, that George Floyd was particularly vulnerable, had not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
(iii) That children were present during the commission of the offense; and
(iv) That Mr. Chauvin committed the crime as a group with the active participation of three other individuals, former Minneapolis Police Officers Thou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng, who all actively participated with Mr. Chauvin in the crime in various ways.
The issue now before this Court on sentencing is the second stage: whether any of these four aggravated factors demonstrates that Mr. Chauvin’s conduct in connection with the offense for which he has been convicted renders his conduct significantly more serious than that typically involved in the commission of such an offense, Hicks, 864 N.W.2d at 157 (Minn. 2015), State v. Edwards, 774 N.W.2d 596, 601-02 (Minn. 2009), and therefore supplies a “substantial and compelling reason” for imposing an aggravated sentence of more than the 180 month top-of-the-guidelines range. Rourke, 773 N.W.2d at 922.
Although this Court found the presence of four aggravating factors, the decision whether to depart durationally upward and impose an aggravated sentence remains within the Court’s sound discretion. See Minn. Sent. Guideline 2.D.1 (“A departure is not controlled by the Guidelines, but rather, is an exercise of judicial discretion constrained by statute or case law.”); State v. Jackson, 749 N.W.2d 353, 360 (Minn. 2008) (when a court “finds facts that support a departure from the presumptive sentence, the court may exercise discretion to depart but is not required to depart”).
