Mark Osler debates federal narcotic sentencing at the Hot Topics: Federal Sentencing event held at the School of Law on Thursday, September 25, 2015.

In the News: Mark Osler on the Former Minneapolis Police Officers Accused of Violating the Civil Rights of George Floyd

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Law professor Mark Osler commented for The Washington Post on the complexity of the federal trial of former Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, who are charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights.

From the article: But Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor who is now a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, said there is a major difference between the state case against the former officers and the federal case over Floyd’s death. “In those cases, we’re looking at what an officer did. Here, we are looking at what an officer did not do: failure to intervene, failure to provide medical aid, and so it’s a different type of question,” Osler said. “It goes from being ‘What did you do?’ to ‘What did you have a duty to do?’ And that’s a very interesting question.”