MINNEAPOLIS — The 2020 death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer is set to be thrust back into the national spotlight as two former cops already convicted on federal charges of violating the 46-year-old Black man's civil rights go on trial Monday in Minnesota state court.
The joint state trial for former Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng, 29, and Tou Thao, 34, comes after they reported to separate prisons this month to begin their federal sentences.
At the time of his decision, Cahill said postponing the trial should"diminish the impact of this publicity on the defendants' right and ability to receive a fair trial from an impartial and unbiased jury." Kueng, a rookie cop at the time of Floyd's death, was sentenced to three years in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release. Thao, who had been a nine-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department at the time of Floyd's death, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, also followed by two years of supervised release.