Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Tou Thao Speaks
The trial of three former officers who were involved in the killing of George Floyd took a fascinating twist. We knew already that the least culpable of them, Thomas Lane, was going to testify on his own behalf, but didn't know whether the other two, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, would follow suit.
Now we know-- they will. And yesterday Tou Thao took the stand. That's him in the photo above, with his attorneys Robert and Natalie Paule (Natalie was my student at UST). I think it was the right choice.
On direct examination, he pointed out that he never touched George Floyd and was facing away from him for most of the incident. He described his role as being a "human traffic cone," tasked with holding the crowd at bay.
For jurors, this could be a tough decision. For those of us watching, it is frustrating as we aren't able to watch the testimony in real time
