Ex-Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane, convicted in connection with George Floyd’s killing, released from federal prison

Thomas Lane, one of the four former Minneapolis police officers convicted in connection with the killing of George Floyd, was released from federal prison Tuesday, a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson told CNN.

Thomas Lane, one of the four former Minneapolis police officers convicted in connection with the killing of George Floyd, was released from federal prison Tuesday, a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson told CNN. Lane, 41, was found guilty in 2022 of violating Floyd’s civil rights when he was fatally restrained by officers on May 25, 2020. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was handcuffed and restrained while lying on his stomach for more than nine minutes, even as he told the officers “I can’t breathe.” A rookie officer on his fourth day on the job, Lane held down Floyd’s legs during the arrest, while his colleague Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck and back, and another officer, J. Alexander Kueng, restrained Floyd’s torso. The fourth officer, Tou Thao, stood nearby and kept back a crowd of upset bystanders. Lane was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison in July 2022. Later that year, Lane was sentenced to three years in prison for a separate state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death to which he pleaded guilty. Lane had initially faced a charge of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder, which prosecutors agreed to dismiss as part of a plea agreement, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office said at the time. State and defense attorneys jointly recommended a sentence of 36 months, CNN previously reported.