Two former Minneapolis police officers, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, told a U.S. judge on Monday they planned to testify in their own defense against federal charges that they violated George Floyd’s civil rights during a deadly 2020 arrest.
A lawyer for Thomas Lane, the third police officer on trial at the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, had previously said Lane would also testify in his own defense, but told Judge Paul Magnuson on Monday that Lane was still considering his decision.
Derek Chauvin, the white police officer convicted at a separate state trial last year of murdering Floyd, has already pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating the 46-year-old Black man’s civil rights by failing to give medical aid.
A cellphone video of the dying, handcuffed Floyd pleading for his life before falling motionless as Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes caused outrage in May 2020, spurring huge daily protests against racism and police brutality in cities around the world.
By: Jonathan Allen (Reuters)
