This content was published on February 24, 2022 – 22:51
Washington, Feb 24 (EFE) .- A jury found guilty on Thursday the three ex-police officers who stood watching while one of their colleagues suffocated the African-American George Floyd with his knee, an event that sparked the largest protests against racism in the United States. in more than half a century.
Former police officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were found guilty of violating Floyd’s civil rights by not helping him when his then-police partner, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee for nine minutes on Floyd’s neck, lying down. on the floor.
While this was happening, Lane grabbed Floyd’s feet and Kueng knelt on his back, while Thao tried to push away those who came to see what was happening.
The federal crime of violating a person’s civil rights carries a range of penalties from prison to life in prison to death, depending on the circumstances of the crime and the injuries that result from it, according to the Justice Department.
The three former agents, who will face another trial at the state level in parallel, pleaded not guilty to the crimes they were charged with.
In addition to violating Floyd’s civil rights, two of the officers, Lane and Kueng, were found guilty on another count of failing to stop Chauvin.
The popular jury for this trial was made up of four men and eight women. All of them appeared to be white, according to the local press, although the Minnesota court where the process took place did not publish racial data.
Of the convicted officers, Lane is white, Kueng is African-American, and Thao identifies with Hmong, originally from southern China.
Floyd lost his life on May 25, 2020 when the four officers tried to arrest him for having used a counterfeit bill to pay at a store.
On June 25, Chauvin was sentenced by a state court to 22 and a half years in prison, of which he will serve 15, for the murder of Floyd.
Chauvin was also accused in a federal trial of violating Floyd’s civil rights, a crime for which he pleaded guilty last December after closing an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office to simultaneously serve this sentence with the one he already faces for murder.
Floyd’s death sparked the largest anti-racism protests in the US since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in the late 1960s. EFE
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