For his part in the murder of George Floyd, Tou Thao, the final ex-officer of the Minneapolis Police Department found guilty in state court, received 4 years, 9 months term on Monday.
On May 25, 2020, former Officer Derek Chauvin, a white man, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man begged for his life. Thao claimed that he was only acting as a “human traffic cone” to keep onlookers away.
Floyd’s waning sobs of “I can’t breathe” were captured on video by a passerby.
Floyd’s death sparked protests around the world and prompted a national discussion about racism and police violence.
Thao was convicted guilty of second-degree manslaughter in May by Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill.
According to Cahill’s 177-page decision, Thao’s actions kept Chauvin and two other former officers—including an EMT—away from the crowd, enabling them to continue holding Floyd while obstructing the ability of onlookers to render treatment.
“There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thao’s actions were truly unreasonable from the point of view of a reasonable police officer when evaluated under the totality of the circumstances,” concluded Cahill.
He came to the following conclusion: “Thao’s actions were even more inappropriate in light of the fact that he had been under a duty to intervene in order to prevent the other officers’ excessive use of force & was trained to render medical aid.”
A plea deal on the state charge was refused by Thao because, in his words, “it would be lying” to admit guilt when he didn’t believe he had done anything wrong. Instead, he consented to let Cahill decide the case using the evidence from Chauvin’s 2021 murder trial and Thao, former Officers Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng’s 2022 federal civil rights trial.
All three defendants were found guilty during that federal court trial. Lane and Kueng admitted guilt to state charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter, while Chauvin admitted guilt to federal civil rights charges rather than undergoing a second trial.
The 3 1/2-year sentence Thao received for a separate conviction on a federal civil rights crime, which an appeals court upheld on Friday, will run concurrently with the sentence Cahill imposed on him on Monday. The four years recommended by Minnesota state guidelines were not included in his state sentence.
In addition to their respective federal penalties of 2 1/2 years and 3 years, Lane and Kueng also received state terms of 3 and 3 1/2 years, which they are presently serving. Lane is white, Kueng is black, and Thao is an American Hmong.
The typical sentence for an offender in Minnesota is two-thirds prison time and one-third parole. In the federal system, there is no such thing as parole, although good behavior allows offenders to shorten their terms of imprisonment.