Judge Paul Magnuson’s sentence was slightly more than the 27 months Lane’s attorney had asked for, while prosecutors had asked for at least 5 1/4 years in prison – the low end of federal guidelines for the charge Lane was convicted of earlier this year. He said Lane, who faces sentencing in September on state charges in Floyd’s murder, will remain free on bond pending his Oct. 4 surrender. Lane, who is white, held Floyd’s legs as Officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd down for nearly 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020. Bystander video of Floyd, who is black, pleaded that he could not breathe sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the world in a reckoning with racial injustice against policing. Two other officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were also convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights and will be sentenced at a later date. Floyd family members had asked Magnuson to give Lane the harshest sentence possible, with brother Philonise Floyd rejecting the idea that Lane deserved any mercy asking his colleagues twice if George Floyd should be moved from stomach on his side. “Officer Lane did not intervene one way or the other,” he said. Prosecutor Manda Sertich had also argued for a higher sentence, saying Lane “chose not to act” when it could have saved a life. “There has to be a line where blindly following the lead of a senior officer, even for a junior officer, is not acceptable,” he said. Magnuson told Lane that “the fact that you did not get up and remove Mr. Chauvin when Mr. Floyd was unconscious is a violation of the law.” But he also kept 145 letters he said he had received in support of Lane, saying he had never received so many on behalf of a defendant. And he blamed the Minneapolis Police Department for sending Lane with another rookie officer to the call that resulted in Floyd’s death. Lane did not speak at the hearing, and neither he nor his attorney, Earl Gray, would comment to reporters afterward. Prosecutors had no immediate comment afterward. Gray argued during the trial that Lane “did everything he could to help George Floyd.” He pointed out that Lane suggested rolling Floyd onto his side so he could breathe, but was rebuffed twice by Chauvin. He also noted that Lane performed CPR to try to revive Floyd after the ambulance arrived. Lane testified at trial that he didn’t realize how bad Floyd’s condition was until he was taken away by paramedics. Sertich responded that his expressions of concern showed he knew Floyd was in distress, but “did nothing to give Mr. Floyd the medical attention he knew Mr. Floyd so desperately needed.” When Lane pleaded guilty in state court in May, Gray said Lane hoped to avoid a lengthy sentence. “She has a newborn baby and she didn’t want to risk not being a part of the child’s life,” she said. Chauvin pleaded guilty to separate civil rights charges in December in Floyd’s killing and in an unrelated case involving a black teenager. That resulted in a 21-year sentence when he appeared before Magnuson two weeks ago, toward the lower end of the 20- to 25-year range agreed to by both sides as part of his plea deal. Magnuson had harsh words for Chauvin at the hearing, saying, “You absolutely destroyed the lives of three young officers by taking command of the scene.” Chauvin was already serving a 22 1/2-year sentence in state court for second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. His federal and state sentences are to run concurrently. Kueng pinned Floyd’s back during the hold, and Thao helped hold back an increasingly restless group of onlookers outside a Minneapolis convenience store where Floyd, who was unarmed, tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Magnuson has not set sentencing dates for Thao, who is Hmong American, and Kueng, who is black. But he has scheduled a hearing for Friday on their lawyers’ objections to how their sentences are calculated under complex federal guidelines. Prosecutors are seeking unspecified sentences for them that would be less than Chauvin’s but “substantially higher” than Lane’s. Thao and Kueng are free on bail pending sentencing. They have rejected plea deals and are scheduled to go to trial Oct. 24 on state charges of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree murder.
The story has correctly updated a reference to the month Floyd was killed.
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