The former Minneapolis police officer who held down George Floyd’s back as one of his colleagues kneeled on the Black man’s neck has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison. J. Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty in October to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. He is already serving a federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights, and the state and federal sentence will be served at the same time. Kueng appeared at his sentencing via a video feed from a federal prison in Ohio. When given the chance to address the court, he declined.

A judge will determine whether evidence of disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes are admissible in an upcoming double-murder trial that has drawn worldwide attention for its bizarre twists. Prosecutors recently said that Murdaugh killed his wife and youngest son last year to gain sympathy and distract others from his damning financial crimes. On Friday, prosecutors and defense attorneys debated the relevance of those years of alleged financial misdeeds that lined Murdaugh’s pockets with nearly $9 million. Murdaugh has denied any involvement in the June 2021 killings of his wife and son.

Tennessee’s lead investigative agency is seeking $2 million in contracts with outside labs to process 1,000 rape kits that need to be tested before the end of June. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued the request for proposals for up to three contractors, as the state’s turnaround times for sexual assault kits continue to face scrutiny after the high-profile killing of teacher Eliza Fletcher in September. As of October, the agency said the average turnaround time for a rape kit was 43 weeks at the Knoxville lab, 42.4 at the Jackson lab and 32.7 at the Nashville lab. The bureau wants the contractors on board by the end of January.