Thomas Lane, one of the former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd’s death, was released from federal prison on Tuesday, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson.
Lane, 41, was convicted in 2022 of violating Floyd’s civil rights during his fatal arrest on May 25, 2020.
Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was handcuffed and restrained on his stomach for over nine minutes despite repeatedly saying he couldn’t breathe.
Lane, a rookie officer at the time, was responsible for holding Floyd’s legs during the incident, while Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck and back, and J. Alexander Kueng restrained Floyd’s torso. Tou Thao, another officer, managed the crowd of bystanders.
Lane was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison in July 2022 and an additional three years for a separate state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, which he admitted to.
Lane’s sentences were served concurrently at Englewood federal prison in Colorado. He will now be under two years of supervised release. All four officers were convicted on both state and federal charges.
Chauvin received a 22.5-year state sentence and a concurrent 21-year federal sentence, following a Supreme Court rejection of his appeal. He was recently transferred to a federal prison in Texas after being stabbed in Arizona.
Kueng and Thao were sentenced to three and three and a half years in prison, respectively, for federal charges, with additional state sentences for their roles in Floyd’s death.
