Incomplete justice: There's another trial to go in George Floyd case
By Gregory J. Wallance, Opinion Contributor — 04/22/21 06:30 PM EDT Amid the relief over the conviction of Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd, it’s easy to forget that three former Minneapolis police officers, Thomas K. Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao, will go on trial, likely in August, for aiding and abetting the murder. An acquittal of these defendants could be a blow to justice in the Floyd case — and to much needed police reform.
These defendants appear to have stronger defenses than Chauvin’s if for no other reason than that none of them had their knee on George Floyd’s neck, which is why they are charged only with aiding and abetting. Attorneys for Kueng and Lane, who had both been on the force less than a week when Floyd died, have argued that they were following orders from Chauvin, a 19-year veteran.
Lane contends that he asked Chauvin whether they should reposition Floyd and that he was worried about “excited delirium,†a term used by medical examiners to describe an in-custody death of a person in an agitated or drug influenced state, but Chauvin only said, “well that’s why we got the ambulance coming." Thao, a more experienced officer who is seen in videos facing the crowd of alarmed onlookers, has described his role as “a human traffic cone†and that he was unaware of what was taking place behind him (although prosecutors allege that he had a direct look at how Chauvin was restraining Floyd).
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https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/549787-incomplete-justice-theres-another-trial-to-go-in-george-floyd-case
