In the law, the jury decides issues of law and facts and the judge puts forth the sentence. For his involvement in the murder of George Floyd, Tou Thao, the final ex-officer of the Minneapolis Police Department to be found guilty in state court, received a 4-year, 9-month term on Monday without expressing any remorse or admitting guilt.
On May 25, 2020, Thao pulled back onlookers who gathered as 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 had earlier claimed that he was only acting as a “human traffic cone” at the time.
On May 25, 2020, Mr. Floyd passed away, prompting huge demonstrations across the US.
Judge Cahill said in his ruling.” Mr. Thao’s actions – which included shielding Chauvin and the two other officers from the crowd – prevented a trained emergency medic from being able to help Mr. Floyd. “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.” Judge Cahill added that Thao’s actions “were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop other officers’ excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid”.
In addition to the state murder charges for Mr. Chauvin, all four of the former police officers engaged in the incident were found guilty on federal civil rights charges. Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng, two former officers, admitted to helping to commit second-degree homicide.
The 57 months will be served concurrently with Thao’s three and a half-year sentence for his civil rights conviction.
A Minneapolis judge has sentenced Tou Thao, a former police officer who held back bystanders as other officers pinned George Floyd to the ground, to four years and nine months in state prison. pic.twitter.com/TTDiSzv7Te
— The Recount (@therecount) August 7, 2023
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