Thomas Lane, former police officer convicted in George Floyd's killing, sentenced to 2 1/2 years on federal charge

Former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on Thursday for violating George Floyd's civil rights. Lane is one of four ex-officers convicted of violating Floyd's constitutional rights during the violent arrest that led to his killing on May 25, 2020.

Lane, along with former officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were found guilty of federal civil rights offenses in February. The convictions followed a trial that examined each of their parts in the unlawful restraint that killed Floyd and determined that they failed to act in accordance with both Minneapolis police protocol and the U.S. Constitution.

Jurors found that all three men "deprived Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from a police officer's deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs when they saw him restrained in police custody in clear need of medical care," the Department of Justice wrote in a statement announcing the convictions. This directly contributed to the physical injuries that caused Floyd's death, the department said.