Jury convicts 3 ex-Minneapolis officers of violating George Floyd’s civil rights
A federal jury has convicted the three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights.
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The jury reached a verdict late Thursday afternoon, after less than 13 hours of deliberation.
Below is a breakdown of the verdict returned by the jury. There was no Count 1 in this case, as that was Derek Chauvin’s charge, which he pleaded guilty to in December.
J. ALEXANDER KUENG
GUILTY – COUNT 2 – Willfully failed to intervene to stop Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force.
GUILTY – COUNT 3 – Seeing Floyd lying on the ground in clear need of medical care, willfully failed to aid Floyd, thereby acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm to Floyd.
THOMAS LANE
GUILTY – COUNT 3 – Seeing Floyd lying on the ground in clear need of medical care, willfully failed to aid Floyd, thereby acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm to Floyd.
TOU THAO
GUILTY – COUNT 2 – Willfully failed to intervene to stop Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force.
GUILTY – COUNT 3 – Seeing Floyd lying on the ground in clear need of medical care, willfully failed to aid Floyd, thereby acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm to Floyd.
Judge Paul Magnuson continued the former officers’ current bond terms and ordered a probationary meeting next week to start a pre-sentence investigation.
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Former federal prosecutor Tom Heffelfinger expected a split verdict and was surprised by how quickly the jury came to its decision.
“I thought it would take longer because there were three separate people with three separate factual defenses and two separate bodies of law,” he said.
Heffelfinger explained while there are guidelines, federal judges have discretion in determining a sentence. The sentencing process will take time.
“The federal sentencing guidelines are rather complicated and detailed,” said Heffelfinger. “He made a point of asking this jury whether or not the conduct of each of these officers was a substantial cause of the death and that puts the sentence higher, quite frankly, because now there is a factual finding by the jury that the death was an outgrowth of the conduct of the officers.
“Had they not come back with that decision there would be a lower sentence, a significantly lower sentence available. My guess is that the judge will not give out a life sentence, which is about 30 years under the guidelines,” Heffelfinger continued. “My guess is that he will come in at something more than 10 years and less than 20.”
The three former officers face a state trial in June for charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter and murder.
“I suspect that there is now a finding in the federal case where the sentences could be higher than they would get in the remaining state case, there will be some dialogue from the defense and the prosecution to settle the state case in tandem with sentencing in the federal case,” said Heffelfinger.
Jurors have reached a verdict in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights.
J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020, as Floyd pleaded for air.
Kueng and Thao are also charged with failing to intervene to stop Chauvin.
The jury received the case Wednesday and began deliberating after a month-long trial.
During the trial, prosecutors sought to show that the officers violated their training, including when they failed to roll Floyd onto his side or give him CPR.
The defense said that the officers were too inexperienced, weren’t trained properly and didn’t willfully violate Floyd’s rights.
In December, Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal charges that included two counts stating he deprived Floyd of his rights by kneeling on his neck as he was handcuffed and not resisting, and then failing to provide medical care.
RELATED: Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pleads guilty in federal case
View the full indictment below.
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