Minneapolis police officer J. Alexander Kueng, convicted in the killing of George Floyd, is set to be released on Jan. 15.
Kueng, 31, was charged with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter for his role in Floyd’s death. Video and eyewitness testimony showed Kueng kneeling on Floyd’s back while his accomplice Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck, cutting off his ability to breathe. Kueng was also charged with violating Floyd’s civil rights in his role as a law enforcement officer.
After pleading guilty, Kueng was sentenced to a 3½-year state sentence, which ran concurrently with his three-year federal sentence. The former officer began serving his time in 2022 at FCI Elkton in Lisbon, Ohio, Star Tribune reported.
Kueng did not serve the full 3½-year sentence. According to a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, this is not unusual. The representative explained that the “First Step Act and other factors” determine parole eligibility.
Tou Thao, another officer convicted of aiding in Floyd’s death, is still serving his five-year sentence for the May 25, 2020, murder. Thao prevented bystanders from intervening as Chauvin and Thomas Lane held Floyd down for nearly 9½ minutes. He reportedly will be released in 2025.
The main perpetrator of the crime, Chauvin, was convicted of murder and manslaughter, and sentenced to 22 years for the state charge and 21 years for federal civil rights violations. He is serving both sentences concurrently.
In November 2024, Derek Chauvin filed a motion to have his charges vacated. The convicted murderer argues that his guilty plea was made without knowledge of theories presented by pathologist Dr. William Schaetzel.
Schaetzel claims that Floyd’s death was caused by a high level of catecholamines, a neurohormone linked to stress, in combination with a fight-or-flight response or Takotsubo myocarditis, a heart condition, as previously reported by BLACK ENTERPRISE.
Chauvin’s attorneys were granted permission in December 2024 to examine Floyd’s heart tissue in support of Schaetzel’s claims.
“The discovery that Mr. Chauvin seeks could support Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion of how Mr. Floyd died, the Court finds that there is good cause to allow Mr. Chauvin to take the discovery that he seeks,” U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled.
For now, Chauvin remains incarcerated in a Texas prison.
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