Free Republic

ST. PAUL — Derek Chauvin was granted permission to test materials from George Floyd’s autopsy in a challenge to Floyd’s cause of death on Monday, Dec. 16, by federal Judge Paul A. Magnuson of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota. In May 2020, 46-year-old Floyd died after Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck. Floyd’s death sparked worldwide Black Lives Matter protests in the months following. As part of a bid to reverse his guilty plea in the case, Chauvin filed a motion requesting further testing of Floyd’s autopsy. Chauvin argued in his complaint that his trial...

Thomas Lane, one of the three former Minneapolis police officers convicted in February of violating George Floyd’s civil rights, was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison on Thursday. Federal prosecutors had asked Judge Paul A. Magnuson to sentence Lane to between 5.25 years to 6.5 years for his role in the fatal restraint of Floyd on a Minneapolis street in May 2020. Earl Gray, Lane’s attorney, asked for a sentence of 2.25 years. Former officers Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng faced state and federal charges for their actions – or lack thereof – in May 2020 as...