In what some saw as a surprise, former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter received a sentence of just two years in prison in the deadly shooting of Daunte Wright. Potter was convicted of first and second degree homicide back in December. The charges came after Potter said she accidentally shot Wright with a handgun when she meant to discharge a taser. The video above includes an apology from Potter, her sentence, and reaction following her sentence.
Her two-year sentence Friday is significantly less than sentencing guidelines of “slightly more than 6 to 8.5 years,” according to this tweet from WCCO reporter David Schuman. Explaining the lesser sentence, Judge Regina Chu said mitigating factors warranted a lesser sentence.
“Officer Potter made a mistake that ended tragically. She never intended to hurt anyone. Her conduct cries out for a sentence significantly below the guidelines,” Chu said. “To those who disagree and feel a longer prison sentence is appropriate, as difficult as it may be, please try to empathize with Ms. Potter’s situation.”
Chu did not get that empathy from Wright’s family, who blasted the lenient Potter sentence at a news conference. Katie Wright, Daunte’s mom, accused Chu of being taken in by “white woman’s tears” after Potter cried during her pre-sentencing statement.
“To sit there and watch pouring my heart out in my victim impact statement that took so long to write that I rewrote it over and over again, to not get a response out of the judge at all,” Katie said. “But then when it came down to convicting, or to sentencing Kim Potter, she broke out in tears.”
“People in our community have gotten sentenced to greater time for selling marijuana than she got for killing our cousin,” Wright family attorney Ben Crump added.
Potter will serve 16 months of the two-year sentence in prison, with the rest on parole. She has earned credit for 58 days that she has been in prison since the guilty verdict.
