A former Minneapolis police officer was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday for his role in the killing of George Floyd.
Thomas Lane, who pleaded guilty to a state second-degree manslaughter charge in June, attended a sentencing hearing on the matter on Wednesday via video, NBC reported. He helped pin Floyd down to the ground during the nine-minute encounter that triggered multiple protests that swept the nation in summer 2020.
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“We want everyone here today to know we will never move on,” an impact statement read by prosecutors said, CNN reported. “You will always show up for George Floyd, but never move on.”
Lane is currently behind bars at a facility in Englewood, Colorado, for federal charges of infringing upon Floyd’s civil rights by declining to give him adequate care after he was unresponsive following his encounter with police. He is serving out a 2.5-year prison stint for the federal charges.
During the hearing, Lane did not address the court, according to CNN. Prosecutors recommended a three-year sentence for him as part of the plea arrangement, according to the news outlet. His lawyer supported the plea agreement to stave off a possible 12-year sentence Lane was facing, according to a statement issued in June.
“The sentence will be concurrent with his federal sentence and he will serve his time in a federal institution. He has a newborn baby and did not want to risk not being part of the child’s life,” his lawyer defense attorney Earl Gray added.
A total of four police officers confronted Floyd during the fatal encounter that fomented outrage across the country. Lane was a rookie officer at the time, having been on the job for four days. He held Floyd down by his legs while then-officer Derek Chauvin put his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck.
All four officers had responded to reports that Floyd attempted to use a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes and was causing a disturbance, according to NBC. Video indicated that the officers believed Floyd had drugs in his system, something that was later confirmed by an autopsy.
Outraged by video of Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck as he stressed to officers that he couldn’t breathe, protesters took to the streets and lobbied for greater measures to curb police brutality. Critics argued that the protests excessively demonized the police and turned violent on multiple occasions.
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Chauvin has since been sentenced to over 22 years in prison for charges that played out in state court. He also pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights case against him last December.
The other two officers, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, turned down plea agreements last month that would have similarly recommended a three-year prison sentence. They are now poised to face trial in October and have already been sentenced in the federal proceedings against them for the death of Floyd. The trial is set for Oct. 24.
