A federal appellate court accepted the prosecutor’s one-page request to drop the government’s appeal of the sentences against former Minneapolis officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who were involved in the 2020 murder of George Floyd, CBS Minnesota reports.

Kueng and Thao were convicted of civil rights violations in the incident that sparked global outrage and nationwide protests. In July, a federal judge sentenced Kueng to three years in prison and Thao to 3 ½  years – lower prison terms than the prosecutor wanted.

In February, a federal jury found that Thao, Kueng and ex-officer Thomas Lane showed "deliberate indifference to [Floyd's] medical needs" when they stood by as ex-officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for over nine minutes on May 25, 2020.

Kueng and Lane, both rookie officers at the time, held down Floyd's torso and legs, while Thao hovered above holding back a crowd of bystanders from attempting to help Floyd.

All four officers faced separate federal civil rights and state cases.

In the state case, a Minneapolis jury found Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced him to 22½ years in prison. Chauvin later pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges and was sentenced to 21 years. He's serving his federal sentence concurrently with his state sentence.

In their state case, Kueng pleaded guilty in October to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, while Thao agreed to a stipulated evidence trial on the aiding and abetting count, bypassing a full trial.

CBS MInnesota reports that the Minnesota Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on Jan. 18 in Chauvin's appeal of his conviction on a state charge of second-degree murder.