Thomas Lane, one of the former Minneapolis police officers convicted of murder George Floyd nearly four years ago, he completed the federal portion of his prison sentence and is now nearing the end of his incarceration.
Lane, 41, will remain housed in the low-security federal lockup in Littleton, Colorado, until his state sentence for accessory to second-degree manslaughter expires on August 20, Minnesota Department of Corrections spokesperson Shannon Loehrke said Thursday.
There will be another year of supervised release before he completes the terms of his state sentence, Loehrke said.
In July 2022, a federal judge sentenced Lane to 2½ years in prison in the federal civil rights case related to Floyd’s killing — a lighter sentence than prosecutors had pushed for.
Lane, one of four officers charged in both state and federal court in connection with Floyd’s May 25, 2020, killing, held Floyd’s legs while Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Lane twice asked that officers move Floyd and later attempted CPR after paramedics loaded Floyd into an ambulance, but prosecutors argued he didn’t do enough to help Floyd.
Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in 2021 in Hennepin County District Court. Chauvin later pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights and is serving a 20-year prison sentence to run concurrently with his 22-year state sentence. He will be released from prison in 2038, according to U.S. Bureau of Prison records.
Accomplices Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng were also convicted in state and federal courts and remain imprisoned.
Floyd, who was black, died while pinned under the knee of Chauvin, who is white, at the corner of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street in south Minneapolis. Floyd’s death led to days of protests and sometimes deadly riots.
