Former officers sentenced for violating George Floyd’s civil rights

J. Alexander Kueng and Tao Thao, the last two former Minneapolis police officers convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights, were sentenced Wednesday in federal court. Keung was sentenced to three years in prison. Thao was sentenced to three and a half years.

The two men were convicted after their trial in February. The jury found Keung and Thao deprived Floyd of medical care and failed to stop Derek Chauvin from kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes.

As Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck, Keung held Floyd’s back and Thao kept bystanders back.

Many of those same bystanders captured video of Floyd’s last moments and shared them online. The public outcry over Floyd’s death was one of the contributing factors to a nationwide reckoning over race relations in 2020.

Chauvin pled guilty last year to violating Floyd’s rights and was sentenced to 21 years in a federal prison.

A fourth former officer, Thomas Lane, was convicted of one count and sentenced last week to two and a half years.

All of these sentences stem from federal charges, which are different from the crimes the state of Minnesota charged each former officer.

Chauvin is serving a 22 and half year state sentence concurrently with his federal sentence.

Lane pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. He’s awaiting sentencing.

Kueng and Thao are still awaiting their state trials.