Thomas Lane appeared via video link at his brief sentencing hearing in Hennepin County District Court from a federal prison in Colorado, where he is already serving a 2.5-year sentence after a jury found him guilty. convicted in February of federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Lane, 39, was one of four officers involved in Floyd’s fatal arrest on May 25, 2020, outside a Minneapolis grocery store where he was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
Lane’s colleague Derek Chauvin, who is white, was captured in cellphone video of bystanders kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed and dying Floyd for more than nine minutes. The video sparked daily protests against racism and police brutality in cities across the United States.
A jury found Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, among other charges, during a state trial in 2021 and he was sentenced to 22½ years. In July, Chauvin received a concurrent 21-year prison sentence on federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Lane, who is also white, agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors from the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office earlier this year. Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng, the other officers involved, were also convicted on federal charges of civil rights violations, but pleaded not guilty to state charges of complicity in the killing of Floyd, and will be tried in October in the County of Hennepin.
Lane and Kueng helped immobilize Floyd’s legs and buttocks during the brutal arrest, while Thao held back horrified bystanders who were screaming at officers to let go of Floyd, who was screaming for his life before falling unconscious.