George Floyd

Case background and investigation

George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died on May 25, 2020, during an arrest by Minneapolis police officers after a store clerk reported that he had used a suspected counterfeit $20 bill. Officers J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane made initial contact with Floyd in his vehicle, and Officers Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao arrived shortly afterward. According to court records and the state's evidence, Chauvin knelt on the handcuffed and prone Floyd's neck and back area for approximately nine minutes while Floyd repeatedly stated that he could not breathe. Floyd was pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center that evening. Bystander video of the encounter was widely circulated.

Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker ruled Floyd's death a homicide, listing the cause as 'cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.' An independent autopsy commissioned by Floyd's family also concluded the death was a homicide. The four officers were fired the day after Floyd's death, and criminal charges followed in both Minnesota state court and federal court.

Derek Chauvin was tried in Hennepin County District Court from March 8 to April 20, 2021. On April 20, 2021, a jury convicted him of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. On June 25, 2021, Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Chauvin to 22.5 years in prison. On December 15, 2021, Chauvin pleaded guilty to a federal charge of depriving Floyd of his civil rights, and on July 7, 2022, he was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison, to run concurrently with his state sentence. In November 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Chauvin's appeal of his state conviction.

The three other officers were also convicted in both federal and state proceedings. On February 24, 2022, a federal jury found Thao, Kueng, and Lane guilty of violating Floyd's civil rights; in July 2022 they were sentenced to 3.5 years (Thao), 3 years (Kueng), and 2.5 years (Lane) in federal prison. In state court, Thomas Lane pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter (sentenced September 21, 2022, to 3 years); J. Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty to the same charge (sentenced December 9, 2022, to 3.5 years); and Tou Thao was found guilty by the court on a stipulated-evidence trial on May 2, 2023, and sentenced on August 7, 2023, to 4.75 years.

Floyd's death triggered mass protests across the United States and internationally in the weeks following May 25, 2020, and prompted a broad public debate over policing. Minneapolis agreed to a $27 million civil settlement with Floyd's family on March 12, 2021. Numerous jurisdictions enacted policing measures such as chokehold restrictions, and in June 2023 the U.S. Department of Justice released findings from a pattern-or-practice investigation concluding that the Minneapolis Police Department engaged in unlawful patterns of conduct including excessive force. As of 2026, all four former officers have been convicted; Chauvin remains incarcerated while pursuing further post-conviction litigation over his federal case.