Prison sentences in the US are grotesquely higher than in other countries, and so is the rate of incarceration. The Constitution talks of "cruel and unusual" punishments being forbidden, but, as with capital punishment, this appears to be ignored in practice. Or rather interpreted as meaning "unusual" within the bounds of the United States, rather than within the civilised (and for that matter the less civilised) world.

The worrying thing in relation to this is that if the sentence given to Chauvin is less than the maximum possible, 40 years, this is likely to be seen by many people as him not getting what his crime deserved. And yet in any other country in the world 40 years in prison would be viewed as excessive.