On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died on a Minneapolis street while officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck for over nine minutes. The image traveled everywhere, and the four officers involved were fired the next day. Six years later, the legal reckoning has played out — but it landed very differently for each man.
Chauvin Convicted, Sentenced to Over 20 Years
Derek Chauvin‘s trial in March–April 2021 was one of the most watched legal proceedings in recent American history. On April 20, 2021, he was found guilty on all three counts: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Two months later, on June 25, 2021, he was sentenced to 22½ years in state prison. A federal conviction followed — an additional 21-year sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights, though the sentences run concurrently. Chauvin is the only one of the four still serving a sentence with no near-term release date on record.
The conviction mattered beyond the verdict itself. Witnesses who were at the scene, bystander video, and medical testimony all confirmed what the world had seen: Floyd’s death was a homicide caused by police restraint, not a pre-existing condition. That finding became central to every subsequent case — including the ones against the other three officers.
The Other Three Officers: Different Choices, Very Different Sentences
J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao — the three officers who stood by — were all convicted federally in 2022 for violating Floyd’s civil rights. But their paths after that split sharply, and the reason comes down to one word: plea deals. the broader Black Lives Matter movement and what it changed
Kueng and Lane both accepted plea deals on their state charges. That decision shortened their time behind bars significantly. Thomas Lane was released in 2024 after serving his concurrent federal and state terms. J. Alexander Kueng followed in January 2025. Both men are now free.
Tou Thao took a different gamble. He refused to plead guilty and chose a stipulated evidence trial — a process where facts are agreed upon but guilt is contested. It didn’t work in his favor. He received a sentence of roughly 4¾ years, the longest among the three. He remains incarcerated as of May 2026 and is expected to be released sometime in late 2026 or 2027. No reversals, no pardons. His conviction stands.
Six Years On: What the Numbers Mean
The legal outcomes are real and, by historical standards, significant. A police officer in the United States being convicted of murder and sentenced to over two decades is not a small thing — it had almost never happened before. But the sentencing range tells its own story: one man gets 22½ years, another walks out after less than three. The same act, the same night, drastically different consequences depending on whether you knelt on someone’s neck or stood nearby and did nothing.
Floyd was 46 years old when he died. He had called out for his mother. The phrase “I can’t breathe” — the last words he was heard saying — became the defining slogan of protests that filled streets in Minneapolis, New York, London, Paris, and dozens of other cities across the world. Six years later, two officers are living their lives outside prison walls. One is still waiting to get out. And one is serving a sentence that will follow him for decades.
