ST. PAUL, Minn. — A federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane to 2 1⁄2 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.
