All Four Officers in George Floyd Killing Convicted on Federal Civil Rights Charges

On December 23, 2021, all four officers present at George Floyd's death — Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane — were convicted on federal civil rights charges. A federal jury found Chauvin guilty of depriving Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizure. Thao and Kueng were convicted of failing to intervene. Lane pleaded guilty beforehand. The federal convictions were significant because they carried mandatory sentences and could not be affected by state-level gubernatorial pardons. The case represented one of the most comprehensive federal prosecutions of police officers for a single killing.