For violating George Floyd’s civil rights, former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane was given a 2 1/2 year jail term on Thursday. Four former police officers have been found guilty of breaching Floyd’s constitutional rights during the violent arrest that resulted in his death on May 25, 2020. Lane is one of them.
With his brother Philonise Floyd claiming in court that Lane “did not intervene one way or another” when Floyd was slain, Floyd’s family had advocated for harsher punishment.
The sentencing was referred to as “insulting” by Philonise Floyd, who asserted that Lane received leniency as a result of a double standard.
“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. “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.”
In February, a jury found former police officers Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao guilty of violating federal civil rights laws. The convictions came after a trial that looked at each of their roles in the unlawful restraint that killed Floyd and found that they didn’t behave in line with the American Constitution and Minneapolis police practice.
The Department of Justice said in a statement announcing the convictions that the jury found that all three men “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.” According to the police, this had a direct impact on the physical injuries that led to Floyd’s demise.
Kueng and Thao were also found guilty of wilfully neglecting to act when former police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes, breaching Floyd’s constitutional right “to be free from an officer’s excessive force.” Lane was not charged with that offense despite twice asking authorities to flip Floyd on his side as he was pinned to the ground.
Chauvin was found guilty of killing Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man from Minneapolis, on state counts of murder and manslaughter in addition to federal civil rights violations. Soon after Floyd’s death, a video recording of it and the events leading up to it appeared online, sparking widespread protests against racism and police violence. In the eight minute and 46-second-long footage, Lane is seen supporting Floyd’s legs as Kueng kneels on his back and Thao keeps onlookers at bay.
According to federal standards, the prosecution suggested in a sentencing letter submitted last month that Lane’s crime may call for a prison term of between 5 and 6 1/2 years. Earl Gray, his attorney, had requested 27 months. In May, Lane admitted guilt to a state charge of encouraging manslaughter and stipulated to a three-year jail sentence. In that situation, his sentencing has not yet taken place.
During the hearing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, who presided over the federal hearings for each of the former police officers convicted in Floyd’s killing, including Lane, called the ex-conduct officer’s “a very severe offense in which a life was lost.”
The punishment, however, fell well short of both the prosecution’s suggested penalty and the non-binding federal standards.
“To me, I think this whole criminal system just needs to be torn down and rebuilt,” Philonise Floyd told reporters. “… To me, I just don’t understand how you can just give somebody the minimum amount of time that you want to give them.”
Brandon Williams, George Floyd’s nephew, expressed similar annoyance with the sentencing and attacked Magnuson.
“I’m angry and fed up,” said Williams, noting how Lane’s 30-month sentence was at the judge’s discretion.
“For what reason?” he asked. “… It’s time and time again that his discretion, when he can give a max sentence, for some reason, he chooses not to.”
Williams was alluding to the judge’s recent ruling that Chauvin should spend more than 20 years in federal prison, where he would serve both his federal and state terms consecutively, despite the prosecution’s recommendation of 25 years.
There is no set date for hearings for Kueng and Thao, who are anticipated to receive heavier federal terms than Lane. Both former officers’ state trials were postponed until later this year.