Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Chauvin, the first white police officer in Minnesota to ever be convicted of killing a Black man, to 22 and a half years in prison on second-degree murder charges.
The former police officer spoke briefly before he was sentenced and offered his "condolences to the Floyd family", CNN reports, however, he could not say more because of impending legal matters.
Sky News reports that the maximum sentence for second-degree unintentional murder is 40 years in prison under Minnesotan law.
However, Chauvin's lack of previous convictions meant that his sentence was expected to have been lighter.
George Floyd, a former security guard who lost his job as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin and three other police officers were summoned to a grocery store in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis.
The cops arrested Floyd after the proprietor accused him of using a counterfeit banknote to pay for his purchases.
Floyd was then handcuffed lying face down in the street, while Chauvin pressed his knee on the back of his neck for a total of nine minutes - fatally asphyxiating him.
Cell phone footage recorded by teenage bystander Darnella Frazier showed that Floyd repeatedly asked for help and pled for leniency from ground level, even stating audibly "I can't breathe" more than 20 times.
When this incriminating video emerged online, Floyd's death sparked a wave of protests across America and the rest of the world over the issues of police brutality and racial profiling.
Meanwhile, the 45-year-old ex-cop was found guilty by a jury of three counts of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter back in April.
According to Minnesota district court documents, the former police officer's attorney, Eric Nelson, filed a motion on Wednesday, June 2, arguing that his sentence should be limited to include time already served in custody.
Nelson further argued that his client should be spared jail, owing to his reduced life expectancy as a former police officer with a pre-existing heart condition.
The lawyer wrote: "Mr. Chauvin's offense is best described as an error made in good faith reliance his own experience as a police officer and the training he had received – not [the] intentional commission of an illegal act."
However, Judge Cahill ruled that there were a number of aggravating factors to consider in the case, pointing to Chauvin's abuse of authority, the children present at the time of Floyd's death, and fact that Chauvin incited a group crime that involved at least three other fellow police officers.