At a hearing in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced Tou Thao, 36, to 3-1/2 years. Earlier Wednesday, he sentenced J. Alexander Kueng, 28, to three years, Andrew Luger, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, said in a statement. In February, Thao and Kueng, along with a third officer, Thomas Lane, were convicted in federal court of depriving Floyd of his civil rights and failing to assist him while Chauvin, a white man, kneed him for nine . minutes. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Lane, 39, was sentenced last Thursday to 2-1/2 years in prison, while Chauvin was sentenced in February to 20 years and 5 months on federal charges related to the killing of Floyd in May 2020. Read more “Each had an individual duty and opportunity to intervene in the excessive force that led to the painful death of Mr. Floyd, but both men failed to take any action,” he said, referring to Thao and Kueng. After the hearings, Floyd’s friend Courteney Ross said she hoped for stiffer sentences for both men. “I’m sad, but I guess we have to take all these little victories and know we’re going to move forward,” he said during a press conference. A cellphone video of Floyd in handcuffs and begging Chauvin for his life sparked outrage in the days after the incident, sparking massive daily protests against racism and police brutality in cities around the world. The four officers were called to a Minneapolis convenience store on May 25, 2020 and attempted to arrest Floyd on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. While Chauvin was kneeling on Floyd’s neck, Kueng put his knee on Floyd’s lower body and left it there for more than eight minutes, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors argued that the three men knew from their training and from “basic human dignity” that they had a duty to help Floyd as he pleaded for his life before they went limp under Chauvin’s knee. Chauvin was also convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter at a state trial in 2021. He is serving a concurrent 22-1/2-year sentence for that conviction. In May Lane pleaded guilty to state aid and aiding and abetting manslaughter charges and agreed to a three-year prison sentence. A state trial is scheduled to begin in January for Thao and Kueng. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago. Edited by Mark Porter and David Gregorio Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
