*Former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights.
Lane, 39, was one of four ex-officers to face charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder related to Floyd’s death in May 2020. Lane held down Floyd’s legs during George’s fatal restraint. He pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in May as part of a plea deal.
Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, called the sentence “insulting”.
“I think that it’s insulting that he didn’t get the maximum amount of time because to me, if it was me, and that was accessory to murder, they would’ve gave me the maximum amount of time,” he said outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul after the sentencing, as reported by CBS. “And you’re a police officer who was sworn to protect, who took a oath, and you didn’t get the maximum amount of time.”
Philonise Floyd – George Floyd’s brother frustrated with Thomas Lane’s 2.5 year sentence @WCCO pic.twitter.com/WyYacsDy0V
— Pauleen Le (@PauleenLe) July 21, 2022
Earlier this year, “Lane, along with former officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were found guilty of federal civil rights offenses. The trio “deprived Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from a police officer’s deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs when they saw him restrained in police custody in clear need of medical care,” the Department of Justice wrote in a statement announcing the convictions, according to CBS News.
The three were charged for failing to intervene as former police officer Derek Chauvin crushed the life out of Floyd when he knelt on his neck for roughly 9 1/2 minutes until Floyd lost consciousness and died.
Chauvin was convicted on state charges of murder and manslaughter as well as federal civil rights offenses for killing Floyd. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison. Kueng and Tou Thao have yet to be sentenced.
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