By STEVE KARNOWSKI (Associated Press)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tou Thao, the final former Minneapolis police officer convicted in state court docket for his position within the killing of George Floyd, was sentenced Monday to 4 years and 9 months — whilst he denied wrongdoing.
Thao had testified that he merely served as a “human traffic cone” when he held again involved bystanders who gathered as former Officer Derek Chauvin, who’s white, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes whereas the Black man pleaded for his life on May 25, 2020.
A bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.”
At the sentencing listening to, Thao spoke at size about his development as a Christian throughout his 340 days behind bars. He mentioned he was “distressed” by Floyd’s loss of life however denied any position in it.
“I did not commit these crimes,” Thao mentioned. “My conscience is clear. I will not be a Judas nor join a mob in self-preservation or betray my God.”
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill responded that he hoped “for more than preaching” from Thao. “After thee years of reflection, I was hoping for a little more remorse,” the decide mentioned.
Thao’s legal professional, Robert Paule, mentioned afterward that they are going to enchantment. He declined additional remark.
Assistant Attorney General Erin Eldridge mentioned throughout the listening to that Floyd’s remaining phrases “reverberated across the globe.”
Floyd, she mentioned, “narrated his own death over the course of a restraint that lasted more than 9 long minutes until he lost consciousness, stopped breathing and his heart stopped beating.”
Thao, she mentioned, “stood by and allowed it to happen” and stopped others from shifting in to assist the dying man.
“He knew better, and he was trained to do better,” Eldridge mentioned.
Floyd’s killing touched off protests worldwide and compelled a nationwide reckoning of police brutality and racism.
Cahill discovered Thao responsible in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
In his 177-page ruling, Cahill mentioned Thao’s actions separated Chauvin and two different former officers from the group, together with an emergency medical technician, permitting his colleagues to proceed restraining Floyd and stopping bystanders from offering medical assist.
“There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thao’s actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances,” Cahill wrote.
He concluded: “Thao’s actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers’ excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid.”
Thao had rejected a plea discount on the state cost, saying “it would be lying” to plead responsible when he didn’t assume he was within the fallacious. He as a substitute agreed to let Cahill resolve the case based mostly on proof from Chauvin’s 2021 homicide trial and the federal civil rights trial in 2022 of Thao and former Officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng.
That trial in federal court docket led to convictions for all three. Chauvin pleaded responsible to federal civil rights prices as a substitute of going to trial a second time, whereas Lane and Kueng pleaded responsible to state prices of aiding and abetting manslaughter.
The sentence Cahill handed down Monday will run concurrently with Thao’s 3 1/2-year sentence on his separate conviction on a federal civil rights cost, which an appeals court docket upheld on Friday. His state sentence was greater than the 4 years really helpful below Minnesota state pointers.
The sentence might be served at federal jail with credit score for time served earlier than Thao is transferred to a Minnesota jail to serve out the rest.
Lane and Kueng acquired 3 and three 1/2-year state sentences respectively, which they’re serving concurrently with their federal sentences of two 1/2 years and three years. Thao is Hmong American, whereas Kueng is Black and Lane is white.
Minnesota inmates typically serve two-thirds of their sentences in jail and one-third on parole. There isn’t any parole within the federal system however inmates can shave time without work their sentences with good habits.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”