ST. PAUL, Minn.—Former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison on a federal civil rights charge for his role in the killing of George Floyd.
U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced Lane for his February conviction of depriving Floyd of medical care.
“The fact that you did not get up and remove Mr. Chauvin when Mr. Floyd became unconscious is a violation of the law,” Magnuson said.
But Magnuson also held up 145 letters of support for Lane—he said he had never received so many on behalf of a defendant—and faulted the Minneapolis Police Department for sending him out with another rookie on the call that ended with Floyd’s killing….