As former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin waits to be sentenced for killing George Floyd, it’s worth remembering what happened in Chicago after a jury convicted a white police officer in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

CHICAGO — Throughout the murder trial, prosecutors showed jurors the video seen countless times around the world of the white police officer killing a Black male. And when it was over, the jurors found the officer guilty of murder.

That was in 2018. Now, as former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin waits to be sentenced for killing George Floyd, it’s worth remembering what happened in Chicago after a jury convicted a white police officer in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald: The judge didn’t follow prosecutors’ recommended 18-20 years behind bars. Former officer Jason Van Dyke got a more lenient sentence — and might be released from prison in about three years.

It’s possible things have changed. Floyd’s horrific death touched off mass protests and calls for police reform that have rippled across the U.S. and in Congress. Chauvin could end up the exception, with a sentence of 30 years behind bars, particularly after the judge who will sentence him agreed Chauvin had committed particular cruelty in Floyd’s death. But if history is any indication, a slam-dunk sentence is not guaranteed.

That was filmmaker Spike Lee’s point when, shortly after the verdict, he said on CNN that he started worrying as soon as “I heard the judge would be the one (who) would be the one that handed out the sentence.” The jury, he said, “got it right, but we don’t know what this judge (will decide).”

Much has been written about how rare it is for a police officer to be charged for an on-duty killing. Philip Stinson, a Bowling Green University criminal justice professor who tracks police prosecutions, has found that since 2005, just 142 non-federal police officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter for on-duty shootings.

Chauvin is part of an even smaller roster of officers who have actually been convicted in on-duty killings: According to Stinson’s count, Chauvin is just the eighth officer convicted of murder for an on-duty killing.

The officers convicted of murder for on-duty shootings were sentenced to an average of 16.4 years in prison, Stinson found. In comparison, the average sentence for a murder conviction in the United States was, just over 48.8 years as of 2018, according to a report released this year by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The average time they spend behind bars can be considerably less than that. Depending on the state, convicted felons can have as much as half their sentence lopped off if they behave themselves in prison. In Minnesota, the presumption is that defendants with good behavior will serve two-thirds of their sentences before they are released on parole.

What that means, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, is that the people who received decades-long sentences for murder or non-negligent manslaughter actually served an average of 17.8 years in state prison before they were released.

For police officers, it often translates to less than a decade behind bars. In Texas, for example, when a former Balch Springs police officer convicted of murder in the shooting death of an unarmed Black teenager was sentenced in 2018 to 15 years in prison, he knew he’d be eligible for parole after serving 7.5 years.

That helps explain why in Illinois, Van Dyke’s attorney sounded more like he’d won the case than lost it when the judge handed down what amounts to a three-year sentence.

“He truly felt great. I mean, he was not just relieved, he was happy …” attorney Dan Herbert told reporters.

Under Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines, Chauvin will only be sentenced for the most serious charge — second-degree murder — in Floyd’s 2020 death. That meant that at the time Chauvin was convicted he faced a presumptive sentence of 12 1/2 years in prison, with the judge limited to sentencing him between 10 years and eight months to 15 years.

But in May, Judge Peter Cahill ruled that there Chauvin abused his authority as a police officer when he restrained Floyd in 2020 and that he treated Floyd with particular cruelty — aggravating factors that add much more more prison time.

The reasons why police officers seem to catch such a break at sentencing begin with one of the first things a prosecutor typically points to when asking for a stiff prison sentence: the defendant’s criminal history.

That, however, runs up against the reality that police officers rarely have any criminal history, for the simple reason that felony convictions get officers fired or prevent them from getting hired in the first place.

“Sentences can go way up if someone has a felony record,” said Robert Weisberg, a law professor at Stanford University and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. “Chauvin doesn’t have that.”

And there’s another argument: “Officers who otherwise have lived a lawful life can make a really strong argument that a long prison sentence isn’t necessary to protect the public, that he … won’t be a threat to public safety,” said Joseph McMahon, the special prosecutor who successfully prosecuted Van Dyke.

Chauvin, his attorneys can argue, won’t commit a similar crime because he’s no longer a police officer.

That’s what a California judge said when he didn’t follow a prosecutor’s request to sentence a former police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a 2015 fatal shooting to four years in prison in favor of 180 days in jail and three years’ probation.

“He has absolutely no prior criminal record, the crime was committed because of very unusual, somewhat bizarre circumstances, which is very unlikely — in fact — will never occur again,” Butte County Judge James F. Reilley said of former Paradise Police officer Patrick Feaster.

That doesn’t mean prosecutors are defenseless, though.

During Van Dyke’s sentencing hearing, McMahon made sure the judge knew about his past, even if that past did not include any convictions.

“I went through all the prior complaints against Jason Van Dyke and even though every one of was (determined to be) unfounded by Chicago Police, I found those individuals all across the country and had them testify about their experiences.”

People like a Black man named Edward Nance. During Van Dyke’s sentencing hearing, Nance tearfully recounted the day Van Dyke pulled him from his car, handcuffed him behind his back and dragged him to his squad car violently enough to rip rotator cuffs. Nance spoke of his constant physical pain, multiple surgeries, and anxiety and depression that more than a decade later made it impossible to sleep through the night.

That is the “kind of witness” available to Minnesota prosecutors if they wish, said McMahon.

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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

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“Make no mistake: Ron Greene was murdered at the hands of Louisiana State Police,” civil rights attorney Ron Haley said.

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana State Police troopers involved in the violent arrest of a Black motorist who died in police custody in 2019 should be fired and arrested, leaders of the National Urban League and other civil rights groups said Thursday.

Marc Morial, the national president of the Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans, discussed the arrest and death of Ronald Greene at a morning news conference with other state and local civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP.

“Mr. Greene was killed by these state troopers,” Morial said after reviewing an Associated Press video report that included an interview with an expert on police use of force. “After seeing that video, no reasonable person could come to any other conclusion other than a crime has been committed by Louisiana state troopers.”

Civil rights attorney Ron Haley added, “Make no mistake: Ron Greene was murdered at the hands of Louisiana State Police.”

Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, appeared at the news conference with family attorney Lee Merritt, who said they had met with a state legislator as well as previously appealed to the governor’s office and district attorney to ask a judge to issue an arrest warrant for the troopers. Merritt said they were told to trust the process and await the results of a federal investigation.

“No one has delivered any specific action,” Merritt said. “We believe in equal protection under the law. And we know if a white citizen, a fellow police officer, the governor’s child, had met the same end that Ronald Greene met, there would be action by now. ”

Hardin thanked Morial and others attending the news conference.

“We need help,” she said. “We need someone’s attention to help, to move these mountains.”

Video obtained by the AP and later released by state police shows troopers stunning, beating and choking Greene, 49, following an automobile chase and crash in northeast Louisiana in May 2019.

Greene’s family was initially told that he died in the car crash. State police later issued a brief statement acknowledging there was a struggle with officers and that Greene died on the way to the hospital. Since then, Greene’s death has come under investigation by state and federal authorities. It also is the subject of a lawsuit.

The video shows troopers converging on Greene’s car outside Monroe, Louisiana, after a high-speed chase that followed an unspecified traffic violation. Troopers can be seen repeatedly jolting the 49-year-old unarmed man with stun devices, putting him in a chokehold, punching him in the head and dragging him by his ankle shackles.

He also was placed facedown on the ground for more than nine minutes while restrained — a tactic use-of-force experts criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing.

An autopsy cited the restraint and an “inflicted head injury” as factors in Greene’s death, along with cocaine-induced delirium and other injuries that might have been the result of the car crash.

The ACLU of Louisiana said the afternoon rally will include representatives of the NAACP of Louisiana and Greene’s family. After remarks on the Capitol steps, the group plans a march to the Governor’s Mansion.

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Scholarship athletes would be granted employee status and both public and private colleges would deemed their employers.

College athletes would have the right to organize and collectively bargain with schools and conferences under a bill introduced Thursday by Democrats in the House and Senate.

Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) announced the College Athletes Right to Organize Act.

A companion bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Andy Levin (Mich.) and Lori Trahan (Mass.). The bill would amend the National Labor Relations Act to define college athletes who receive direct grant-in-aid from their schools as employees.

A movement at Northwestern to unionize college football players was rejected by the National Labor Relations Board in 2015.

Murphy and Trahan are among several federal lawmakers from both parties who have previously introduced legislation related to college athletes being permitted to earn money for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).

The NCAA has turned to Congress for help as it tries to reform its rules to allow athletes to be paid for endorsements, personal appearances and autograph signings.

Several states, including Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, have laws scheduled to take effect July 1 that would open the NIL market to college athletes.

The NCAA hopes to have new rules in place by July 1 as well.

The NCAA’s proposals regarding NIL would allow athletes to enter financial arrangements with third parties. Schools would be banned from being involved in the transactions.

While the NCAA has loosened restrictions on how athletes can be compensated over the years, it has held firm to notion they are not employees.

The latest bill by Murphy, who has been one of the most vocal advocates for college athlete rights on Capitol Hill, would upend the college model.

Scholarship athletes would be granted employee status and both public and private colleges would deemed their employers under an amended NLRA.

The NLRB would consider colleges within a conference part of a “bargaining unit.”

The bill would also protect the tax status of athletic scholarships and other benefits, and prohibit schools from asking athletes to waive the right to collectively bargain.

“Big-time college sports haven’t been ‘amateur’ for a long time, and the NCAA has long denied its players economic and bargaining rights while treating them like commodities,” Murphy said in a statement. “Having the right to do so will help athletes get the pay and protections they deserve and forces the NCAA to treat them as equals rather than second-class citizens. It’s a civil rights issue, and a matter of basic fairness.”

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Next time you’re behind the grill, try these chef-made condiments.Read More

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The Cuban Baseball Federation identified the player as 22-year-old César Prieto.

HAVANA — The Cuban Baseball Federation confirmed Wednesday night that one of the players on the national team defected a few hours after the squad arrived in Florida to participate in a qualifying tournament for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

The organization identified the player as César Prieto, 22.

“His decision, contrary to the commitment made to the people and the team, has generated disdain among his peers and other members of the delegation,” the federation said.

The team arrived in Florida after months of struggling to obtain U.S. visas, for which the players filed applications in three other countries due to U.S. sanctions that prevented the U.S. Consulate in Havana from issuing the documents.

The permits were finally delivered Tuesday under a special effort made by the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

Eight nations — Cuba, the United States, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Colombia and Canada — will be battling for one spot in the six-team Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament. The tournament runs from May 31 to June 5 in West Palm Beach and Port St. Lucie, but exhibition matches are scheduled before that.

With three gold and two silver medals, Cuba has dominated Olympic baseball.

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Starting this week, season ticket holders will be able to renew their tickets. In mid-July, the school’s ticket lottery will begin and single-game tickets will be made available in mid-August.

Notre Dame is preparing for full capacity at home football games this fall.

The Irish say they’ll make all 77,622 seats at Notre Dame Stadium available for purchase and continue to consult with local health officials.

Starting this week, season ticket holders will be able to renew their tickets. In mid-July, the school’s ticket lottery will begin and single-game tickets will be made available in mid-August.

Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick says based on information from health officials the university will decide what protocols and procedures will be needed to keep everybody safe.

Notre Dame is already requiring students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated before returning to campus for the upcoming school year.

Swarbrick says he’s optimistic that conditions will allow for the resumption of outdoor game-day traditions, such as tailgating and the football player walk.

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Chicagoans can find a range of plays, musicals and dance shows at local theaters large and small. Our guide has the latest on what’s on stage in the city.

Welcome to our highlights of events and entertainment on stage at Chicago’s theaters. From local productions to Broadway hits, our guide has the latest on shows in the city. Bookmark this page and check back for updates and ticket information.

‘Lot 110’

When: free virtual reading 7 p.m. May 29, Goodman Theatre

What: Lili-Anne Brown directs a free virtual reading of Chicago playwright Nora Carroll’s “Lot 110.” The drama is the story of two sisters who travel to their sister’s gravesite to perform a ritual of healing, of remembrance, of connection. Visit goodmantheatre.org/lot110.

‘Just Cause: The Experience’

When: Streams at 7 p.m. May 27

What: Citadel Theatre presents a free online reading of Todd Logan’s “Just Cause: The Experience,” a courtroom drama about an artistic director who is suing her former employer. Visit citadeltheatre.org.

Chicago Dance Month

Photo by Philamonjaro Studio

When: May 29-June 24

What: June is Chicago Dance Month and it kicks off on May 29 at Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand. Presented by See Chicago Dance, the free live event features performances by Aerial Dance Chicago, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, Mandala Arts and The Seldoms. The celebration continues with pop-up performances (3 p.m. Saturdays June 5-Sept. 4, Navy Pier), a park-wide dance “scavenger hunt” featuring an eclectic group of artists (4:30 p.m. June 9, 30 in McKinley Park, 2210 W. Pershing) and a virtual event with more dance performances (6 p.m. June 24). All events are free. Visit seechicagodance.com/dancemonth.

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The text from university president Kristina Johnson to athletic director Gene Smith was among more than 2,500 pages of documents the school released Wednesday night in response to public records requests by media organizations. 

The president of Ohio State University asked athletic director Gene Smith if the Buckeyes could “go independent” in a text message sent the day after the Big Ten announced in August it would not play a fall football season.

The text from Ohio State President Kristina Johnson to Smith, dated Aug. 12 at 8:04 a.m., was among more than 2,500 pages of documents the school released Wednesday night in response to public records requests by media organizations.

The documents included numerous email messages from Buckeyes supporters to Smith and Johnson, criticizing both leaders and the Big Ten’s decision to postpone the season on Aug. 11 because of the pandemic.

“As an alumni I have slowly been losing my faith in the direction of Ohio State, oh to go back to the days of the leadership we had under Gordon Gee,” one emailer wrote, referring to the former Ohio State President, currently at West Virginia University.

There were also email exchanges between athletic directors in the Big Ten proposing alternative football schedules for both a traditional season that would start in September and winter/spring options.

The Big Ten canceled fall football on Aug. 11 and said it would attempt to play all traditional fall semester sports in the spring semester.

The next day, Johnson texted Smith: “Anyway to go independent?”

Smith responded: “I am trying to understand our contracts and if we can play independent this year. Nebraska is trying too and gone public with it.”

On Sept. 16, the Big Ten reversed course — citing the development and availability of rapid COVID-19 testing as a major factor — and decided to schedule an eight-game football season that started on Oct. 24.

The condensed schedule included no room for makeup dates and Ohio State ended up having three of its regular-season games canceled because of virus issues with either the Buckeyes or their opponent.

The Buckeyes went undefeated in the regular season, but Big Ten officials had to change conference rules on the fly to allow Ohio State to play in the conference title game.

The Buckeyes won the Big Ten, made the College Football Playoff, and beat Clemson in the semifinals before losing to Alabama in the national championship game.

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The attacker was identified as 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, according to two law enforcement officials.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — An employee who gunned down nine people at a California rail yard and then killed himself as law enforcement rushed in had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago, his ex-wife said.

“I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now,” a tearful Cecilia Nelms told The Associated Press on Wednesday following the 6:30 a.m. attack at a light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority.

“When our deputies went through the door, initially he was still firing rounds. When our deputy saw him, he took his life,” Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith told reporters.

The gunman had two semiautomatic handguns and 11 loaded magazines, the sheriff told NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday. A locker at the rail yard believed to be the gunman’s contained “materials for bombs, detonator cords, the precursors to an explosive,” Smith said.

The number of people fatally shot by the gunman rose from eight after the Santa Clara County’s medical examiner-coroner late Wednesday confirmed the death of Alex Ward Fritch, 49. He had been wounded and hospitalized in critical condition after the attack.

The sheriff’s office is next door to the rail yard, which serves the county of more than 1 million people in the heart of the Silicon Valley.

The attacker was identified as 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, according to two law enforcement officials who were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Investigators offered no immediate word on a possible motive but his ex-wife said he used to come home from work resentful and angry over what he perceived as unfair assignments.

“He could dwell on things,” she said. The two were married for about 10 years until a 2005 divorce filing and she hadn’t been in touch with Cassidy for about 13 years, Nelms said.

It was the 15th mass killing in the nation this year, all of them shootings that have claimed at least four lives each for a total of 87 deaths, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

At the White House, President Joe Biden ordered flags to be flown at half-staff and urged Congress to act on legislation to curb gun violence.

“Every life that is taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation. We can, and we must, do more,” Biden said in a statement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the site and then spoke emotionally about the country’s latest mass killing.

“There’s a numbness some of us are feeling about this. There’s a sameness to this,” he said. “It begs the damn question of what the hell is going on in the United States of America?”

Members of a union representing Valley Transportation Authority workers were meeting when the shooting began, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said, but it’s not clear the meeting was related to the attack.

The shooting took place in two buildings and killed employees who had been bus and light rail operators, mechanics, linemen and an assistant superintendent over the course of their careers. One had worked for the agency since 1999.

Eight victims identified earlier were Paul Delacruz Megia, 42; Taptejdeep Singh, 36; Adrian Balleza, 29; Jose Dejesus Hernandez, 35; Timothy Michael Romo, 49; Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40; Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63, and Lars Kepler Lane, 63.

Singh had worked as a light rail train driver for eight or nine years and had a wife, two small children and many family members, said his cousin, Bagga Singh.

“We heard that he chose the people to shoot, but I don’t know why they choose him because he has nothing to do with him,” he said.

San Jose City Councilman Raul Peralez said Rudometkin was a close friend.

“There are no words to describe the heartache we are feeling right now, especially for his family,” he wrote on Facebook. “Eight families are feeling this same sense of loss tonight and our entire community is mourning as well.”

There was nothing in public records to indicate Cassidy ever got in trouble with the law. He received a traffic ticket in 2019 and sheriff’s officials said they were still investigating his background.

But in court documents filed in 2009, an ex-girlfriend described him as volatile and violent, with major mood swings because of bipolar disorder that became worse when he drank heavily.

Several times while he was drunk, Cassidy forced himself on her sexually despite her refusals, pinning her arms with his body weight, the woman alleged in a sworn statement filed after Cassidy sought a restraining order against her. The documents were obtained by The San Francisco Chronicle.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted.

Cassidy had worked for Valley Transportation Authority since at least 2012, according to the public payroll and pension database Transparent California, first as a mechanic from 2012 to 2014, then as someone who maintained substations.

Officials also were investigating a house fire that broke out shortly before the shooting, Davis said. Public records show Cassidy owned the two-story home where firefighters responded after being notified by a passerby. Law enforcement officers cordoned off the area near the home and went in and out Wednesday.

The gunman probably “set some kind of a device to go off at a certain time probably to coincide with the shooting,” the sheriff told “Today.”

Doug Suh, who lives across the street, told The Mercury News in San Jose that Cassidy seemed “strange” and that he never saw anyone visit.

“I’d say hello, and he’d just look at me without saying anything,” Suh said. Once, Cassidy yelled at him to stay away as he was backing up his car. “After that, I never talked to him again.”

Wednesday’s attack was the deadliest shooting in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1993, when a gunman attacked law offices in San Francisco’s Financial District, killing eight people before taking his own life.

It also was Santa Clara County’s second mass shooting in less than two years. A gunman killed three people and then himself at a popular garlic festival in Gilroy in July 2019.

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Associated Press video journalist Terry Chea in San Jose and writers Janie Har in San Francisco, John Antczak and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, and Michael Balsamo and Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.

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