Former cop's plan to testify could throw wrench into federal trial over George Floyd's death: Experts

Thomas Lane's attorney said he will take the witness stand.

One of the three former police officers being tried on federal charges stemming from George Floyd's death plans to testify in his own defense, but legal experts said the decision announced this week by Thomas Lane's attorney is fraught with risk and might pressure the other defendants to do the same.

Lane's lawyer, Earl Gray, said during his opening statement Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, that the 38-year-old former Minneapolis police officer plans to take the witness stand in the high-profile case.

If Lane testifies, he will be the first former police officer involved in the 2020 fatal arrest to publicly speak of his role in the incident. He is expected to tell jurors what was going through his mind while he helped hold down the handcuffed 46-year-old Black man as his then-senior officer, Derek Chauvin, dug his knee into the back of Floyd's neck until he was rendered unconscious and lost his pulse.

Chauvin was convicted in Minnesota state court in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison.