By Brendan O’Brien
(Reuters) – A former Minneapolis police officer was scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday on federal charges stemming from his role in the death of George Floyd, an incident that sparked protests around the globe against police brutality and racism.
United States District Judge Paul Magnuson was to sentence Thomas Lane at 10 a.m. local time in a federal courtroom in St. Paul on charges that he deprived Floyd of his civil rights and his conduct caused his death.
Lane was facing as much as 5 1/4 to 6 1/2 years in prison, according to court records.
Lane was one of four officers who responded to a Minneapolis grocery store on May 25, 2020 and took the Black man into custody on suspicion he used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
During the encounter, former police officer Derek Chauvin pinned the handcuffed Floyd beneath his knee for more than nine minutes, leading to his death.
The incident, which was captured on cellphone video, led to protests in many cities in the United States and around the world against police brutality and racism.
Lane, along with fellow former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng, were found guilty by a federal jury in February for their involvement Floyd’s death. A date has not been set for the sentencing of Thao and Kueng.
During the trial, federal prosecutors argued that the three other men knew from their training and from “basic human decency” that they had a duty to help Floyd as he begged for his life before falling limp beneath Chauvin’s knee.
Earlier in July, Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in prison on federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Chauvin also was convicted of intentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in a state trial in 2021. He is serving a sentence of 22-1/2 year in a Minnesota prison on that conviction.
In May, Lane pleaded guilty to state aiding and abetting manslaughter charges and agreed to a sentence of three years in prison. A state trial is scheduled to be begin in January for the other two officers.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
