Former Minneapolis police officer J. Alexander Kueng was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to three years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights during the May 2020 killing.
Kueng Tou Thao’s co-defendant was due to be sentenced later on Wednesday.
Kueng and Tao were convicted in February of two counts of violating Floyd’s civil rights. The jury found that they deprived the 46-year-old black man of medical care and failed to stop Derek Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes. Kueng, who is black, was sentenced to three years on each charge, to be served concurrently.
Kueng’s lesser sentence raises questions about whether he will consider a plea deal or risk a trial in state court on Oct. 24, when he and Thao face charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter degree.
Former Minnesota police officer Tou Tao poses for a booking photo at the Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis on June 3, 2020. (Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office/Reuters)
Kueng held Floyd’s back, former officer Thomas Lane held his legs, and Tao held back bystanders, some of whom recorded a video that sparked worldwide protests.
The US federal government filed civil rights charges against the four officers in May 2021, a month after Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in state court. They were seen as an affirmation of the US Justice Department’s priorities to address racial disparities in policing, a promise made by President Joe Biden before his election. And they came just a week after federal prosecutors filed hate crime charges in the Georgia slaying of 25-year-old Ahmoud Arberry and announced two sweeping police investigations in two states.
Chauvin, who pleaded guilty last year to violating Floyd’s civil rights and a teenager’s civil rights in an unrelated case, was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison. Lane, who twice asked if Floyd needed to be turned on his side so he could breathe, was convicted of one count and was sentenced last week to 2 1/2 years in prison, a sentence that Floyd’s brother Philonise called “insulting.”
For Kueng, prosecutors asked for less time than Chauvin and “significantly” more from Lane. Kueng’s lawyer had asked for two years, according to prosecutors.
A woman walks past a George Floyd mural in Montreal on June 13, 2020. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)
Kueng and Tao won last week when U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson issued rulings that affect how their federal sentences will be calculated. The rulings – particularly one that referred their offenses to manslaughter instead of murder – meant the men headed into Wednesday’s hearings with a recommended range of 4¼ to 5¼ years. They could face life in prison.
Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and a former federal prosecutor, said before the hearings that once the men find out what their federal sentences are, they will likely seek a plea deal on the state charges, which does not exceed the federal sentence and will let them serve the sentences concurrently.
Kueng and Thao, who is Hmong American, can still appeal their federal convictions. If they plead guilty in state court, any federal appeal would be moot, said Mike Brandt, a criminal defense attorney who is following the case. But it’s also hard to win a federal appeal, he said.
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“Those are some of the calculations they’re going to have to make in terms of, ‘Should I go to court and risk something worse?’ Do I think I have a good chance of appealing the federal case?” Brandt said.
Lane, who is white, pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and awaits sentencing in that case. He was allowed to remain free on bond after his federal conviction.
Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in state court and is serving a 22 1/2-year state sentence. His federal and state sentences are to be served concurrently.
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