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Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane has been released from prison two years after his conviction in the 2020 death of George Floyd.
Lane was one of four police officers convicted in connection with Floyd’s death, which sparked nationwide protests for racial justice.
The 41-year-old was found guilty of violating Floyd’s civil rights in 2022. The 46-year-old black man was handcuffed and lay on his stomach for more than nine minutes, telling officers he couldn’t breathe.
Lane had only been on the force for four days, CNN reported, and he was holding Floyd’s legs as he was being arrested. Another officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while Officer Alexander Kueng held Floyd’s upper body. His colleague Tou Thao restrained witnesses who were becoming increasingly angry at the scene.
Lane asked twice if they should move Floyd and began CPR after paramedics put him in an ambulance. But prosecutors said he did not do enough to help the 46-year-old, according to The Minnesota Star-Tribune.
In July 2022, Lane was sentenced to two and a half years in a federal prison. Later that year, he was sentenced to three years in prison at the state level after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
He had previously been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, but the charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement.
The prosecution and defense attorney had demanded a prison sentence of 36 months, but a lighter sentence was imposed.
Lane was serving his sentence concurrently at Englewood Prison in Colorado. The low-security prison has about 1,000 inmates. He is the first of the four officers to be released.
“The District of Minnesota has sentenced him to two years’ probation,” a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman told CNN.
Lane completed his federal sentence in June and remained in custody to serve his state sentence. He left prison Tuesday morning.
All four officers were found guilty on both the federal and state levels in connection with Floyd’s death.
In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison. In November last year, the Supreme Court rejected Chauvin’s appeal of the verdict.
Chauvin subsequently pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights and was sentenced to 21 years in prison, which he must serve concurrently with his state prison sentence.
In November 2023, the ex-police officer was stabbed to death in a federal penitentiary in Arizona. The Bureau of Prisons told CNN that Chauvin was transferred to a low-security prison in Texas on Tuesday.
Kueng and Thao were both found guilty by a federal court jury of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Kueng was sentenced to three years and Thao to three and a half years.
At the state level, Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in December 2022. Thao was sentenced to nearly five years in prison on the same charge in August last year.
