After guilty verdict for ex-Minneapolis officers, prison sentences, state trial's fate hangs in balance

The groundbreaking legal reckoning isn't over yet for four former Minneapolis police officers responsible for George Floyd's public killing on a south Minneapolis street almost two years ago.

As Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane await sentencing on this week's federal court conviction, they also head toward another trial. In June, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office is set to prosecute the three in state court on charges of aiding and abetting former officer Derek Chauvin's murder of Floyd.

The fate of the three remains entwined with that of Chauvin, who is serving a state sentence of more than 22 years. The duration of his federal sentence will factor into the sentences of the other three. It's also likely to influence the calculations of the officers and prosecutors on whether to negotiate a plea deal to avoid another costly and emotional trial in Minneapolis.

"Chauvin's sentence will inform the defense team as to what their clients are truly facing," former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger said.

The situation is unusual because the guilty verdicts, delivered in St. Paul's federal courthouse late Thursday afternoon, may be the first of their kind in the United States, said Christy Lopez, a Georgetown Law professor and former deputy chief for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

"In terms of a federal prosecution of officers, I couldn't find any case where they were prosecuting officers failing to intervene against a superior officer," she said. "I think that's really significant."

Lopez said the verdict was "far from a foregone conclusion," and will send a message to police and prosecutors of a change in how the public — and jurors — view police misconduct.

Ayesha Bell Hardaway, associate professor and co-director of the Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, said the verdicts "put a significant dent in the blue wall," the culture of silence that says cops can't "rat out or snitch on fellow officers."

"The community standard in Minnesota, at least, is that juries are going to consider that criminal," Bell Hardaway said.

And when communities fail, the U.S. Department of Justice will step in and "is willing to hold police accountable for disastrous misdeeds even if local governments are not," Bell Hardaway said.

Lopez is also co-director of Georgetown Law's Center for Innovations in Community Safety, which runs ABLE — an acronym for Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement — an intervention training adopted by Minneapolis police in the wake of Floyd's killing. Lopez said she hopes the verdict causes police departments to adopt better training programs and prompts a culture change to support officers who speak up.

"With training, it's very possible these officers would have done a better job intervening," Lopez said.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson will ultimately determine the sentences, and will have latitude in calculating the punishment for all four officers.

For Thao, Kueng and Lane, federal sentencing guidelines recommend three to four years in prison, but the officers could face a higher sentence because the jury also found that the officers' crimes caused Floyd's death, said Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

The three were convicted of violating Floyd's constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizure. The jury determined all three failed to render aid to Floyd as he lay prone, handcuffed and dying under the pressure of Chauvin's knee on his neck for nearly 10 minutes.

Kueng and Thao also were convicted of failing to intervene and stop Chauvin from using excessive force as Floyd fell silent and still as bystanders begged for his life. Thao is the officer who remained standing and kept the bystanders on the curb. Kueng restrained Floyd's midsection while Lane held his legs and twice sought to roll him on his side.

Heffelfinger said the federal convictions of the three officers make it unlikely they will be tried in state court in June. "The federal sentence will almost certainly be higher than the state sentence these three would face," Heffelfinger said.

U.S. law doesn't allow a state sentence to be served after a federal sentence for the same crime, he said. Federal sentences, however, can start after state sentences, which may affect Chauvin.

Chauvin was tried first and convicted in state court in April. He pleaded guilty in December to willfully depriving Floyd of his constitutional rights, resulting in his death.

Magnuson will sentence Chauvin but no date has been set.

As part of his plea deal, Chauvin agreed that the appropriate offense level for his crime was second-degree murder because he used excessive force and acted without regard to Floyd's life. His plea agreement, which included a separate, unrelated offense from 2017, called for a sentence of 20-25 years.

The question is whether Chauvin's state sentence runs concurrently with his federal sentence or whether his federal sentence won't start until after he completes the 22-year-plus state sentence.

Once Chauvin is sentenced, Heffelfinger predicted "serious discussions" will begin with lawyers for the other three and Ellison's office.

The uniqueness of the prosecution means Magnuson won't have other sentences to look to for guidance in deciding prison time. But he will have guidance from the jury that found the ex-officers actions had caused Floyd's death.

The finding of causation gives Magnuson an opportunity to give the former officers longer sentences if he chooses. And because the verdicts were groundbreaking, the sentencing will be as well.

"The judge has an opportunity to set a standard here," Bell Hardaway said.

Ellison's office didn't respond to a request for comment nor did lawyers for Thao, Kueng and Lane. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on sentencing.