Ex-officer Thomas Lane sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane to 21⁄2 years in prison in the federal civil rights case linked to the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson handed down the 30-month sentence during an hourlong hearing in St. Paul. Magnuson also scheduled a Friday hearing to take up legal objections from attorneys for two other officers convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Federal prosecutors sought a sentence of between 5¼ and 6½ years in prison for Lane, well below the more than 20-year sentence that Magnuson imposed on Derek Chauvin earlier this month. After a 21-day trial, Lane and former officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were found guilty by a jury in February of violating Floyd’s civil rights while acting in their capacity as law enforcement officers. Both Kueng and Lane were convicted of charges tied to their failure to give Floyd medical care. Kueng and Thao were also convicted on charges related to not trying to stop Chauvin from using excessive force.
“As the jury necessarily found, the defendant recognized that George Floyd was suffering from a serious medical need and failed to provide him with the basic medical aid that the defendant was trained and duty-bound to give at a time when that aid could have made a difference,” prosecutors wrote last month in a memo outlining their arguments for Lane’s sentencing. “Although the defendant did not intend for Mr. Floyd to die, the defendant’s failure to provide medical aid had serious consequences for Mr. Floyd, Mr. Floyd’s family, defendant Lane’s fellow law enforcement officers, and the broader community.”
Before sentencing Chauvin this month, Magnuson told the ex-officer that he “absolutely destroyed the lives of three other officers by taking control of this scene,” referring to the deadly force Chauvin — a training officer and superior to the officers — applied to Floyd’s neck.
Magnuson has also scheduled an 11 a.m. hearing Friday to consider objections from Kueng’s and Thao’s attorneys over the calculated sentencing guidelines in their respective federal cases.
Kueng and Thao are still awaiting an Oct. 24 trial in Hennepin County on state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter. Lane pleaded guilty in May and agreed to a sentence of three years in the state case.
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill will sentence Lane on Sept. 21 in that case. Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, is asking Magnuson to impose a sentence of a little more than two years on the federal charges.
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