Former Minneapolis police officer involved In George Floyd’s Killing Sentenced To 30 Months In Federal Prison

By Josephine Turco –

Thursday afternoon the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Minneapolis Police Officer Thomas Lane was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison and two years of supervised release.

On February 24, 2022, following a five weeks trial, a federal jury in St. Paul, Minnesota, found Lane guilty of depriving George Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from a police officer’s deliberate indifference to serious medical needs when Lane saw Floyd restrained in police custody in clear need of medical care and willfully failed to aid him. 

Additionally, the jury found that Lane’s failure to act resulted in bodily injury to and the death of Floyd. This offense is a violation of the federal criminal civil rights statute that prohibits willful violations of civil rights by a person, such as a police officer, acting in an official capacity.

At the state level, Lane pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the top charge against him of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder.