Ex-Minneapolis Police Officer Thomas Lane was sent to a low-security prison in Colorado after being sentenced to two-and-a-half years in federal court for violating George Floyd's civil rights. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson proposed a minimum-security prison in Duluth with fewer inmates, but the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which makes such decisions, selected the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in Littleton, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Lane's attorney Earl Gray told the newspaper they were "satisfied" with the government's decision. Lane was additionally ordered to serve two years of supervised release after his time in prison.
"He wants to get his sentence done with," Gray said.
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Lane held Floyd's legs down along with peer J. Alexander Kueng as Floyd’s convicted murderer Derek Chauvin kneeled on the Black father's neck for more than nine minutes. Ex-Officer Tou Thao blocked bystanders from helping Floyd.
All four officers ended up with state and federal charges against them resulting from the deadly detainment. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal charges of depriving Floyd of his civil rights—offenses Lane, Kueng, and Thao were also convicted of in federal court. Kueng was sentenced to three years in prison and Thao was sentenced to three-and-a-half years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In the state case, Lane pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and avoided the more serious charge of aiding and abetting second-degree murder. He agreed to serve three years in prison, and the court recommended that his time be spent in federal prison instead of with the state.
Kueng and Thao rejected the deal on Monday, the Star-Tribune reported.
“It would be lying for me to accept any plea offer,” Thao said, according to the Associated Press.
He and Kueng are due in court on Oct. 24.
One of the witnesses in the state case, a friend of Floyd's who was with him before his death, already filed a motion of intent through his attorney on Tuesday to squash a subpoena, the Star-Tribune reported.
Morries Lester Hall intends to invoke his Fifth Amendment right protecting him against self-incrimination as he did during Chauvin’s murder trial. Adrienne Cousins, Hall’s attorney, said then that because drugs had been found in her client's car in two police searches, Hall could incriminate himself into a future third-degree murder charge if he testified.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, tried to convince the jury Chauvin died of a drug overdose despite expert testimony to the contrary. Martin Tobin, a Chicago pulmonologist and critical care physician, and Bill Smock, an emergency medical physician, testified that Floyd died of positional asphyxiation—a lack of oxygen caused by an inability to breathe properly in a particular position.
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Before he died on May 25, 2020, Floyd reportedly called Hall by his nickname and told him: "I love you, Reese!"