State trial postponed for three officers charged in George Floyd killing

The state trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged in the killing of George Floyd will be postponed from its planned March date.

J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were scheduled to stand trial March 7 on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death on a south Minneapolis street corner.

Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill, who is presiding over the trial, issued an order Wednesday morning granting a request by defense attorneys and prosecutors to move the trial but did not set a new date.

Cahill ordered the attorneys to meet before Jan. 15 to select a new trial date between March 14, 2022, and Jan. 9, 2023.

Their attorneys and prosecutors filed a joint motion last week to postpone the state trial because the defendants are due in federal court Jan. 20 for a trial on charges that they violated Floyd's civil rights during the May 25, 2020, arrest that led to his death.

Cahill said attorneys should set aside three weeks for jury selection and five weeks for testimony in the state trial.

If attorneys cannot agree on a new date by Jan. 16, Cahill said, the state trial will commence on March 7 as scheduled. If the federal trial has not concluded by then, the state trial will be postponed on a daily basis until the attorneys are available, the judge added.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted in state court last year for murdering Floyd and later pleaded guilty in federal court to violating his civil rights. He knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.

Chauvin is serving 22 ¹⁄₂ years in prison in the state case and has yet to be sentenced in the federal case, where prosecutors are recommending a 25-year prison term.