A lawyer representing George Floyd’s family has accused ex-cop Derek Chauvin’s defense team of trying to “kill [him] a second time” by attempting to introduce evidence alleging a history of excessive drug use by Floyd.
“We just sat through a very emotional hearing where people tried to kill George Floyd a second time,” family attorney Benjamin Crump said on Friday, following a pretrial hearing for the four former police officers implicated in Floyd’s death. “They made all sorts of foolish allegations, talking about, he died of a drug overdose. They're trying to claim the knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds had nothing to do with his death.”
“The only overdose that killed George Floyd was an overdose of excessive force and racism by the Minneapolis Police Department,” Crump declared.
Former officers Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao appeared before Hennepin County District Court, where Judge Peter Cahill opted for a two-week jury selection process, followed by a four-week trial. Chauvin is facing charges of second-degree murder for kneeling on Floyd’s neck, while Kueng, Lane and Thao have all been charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
All four have filed motions to dismiss the charges.
Central to their defense is a report by Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker, who discovered a “fatal level” of fentanyl in Floyd’s body at the time of his death, which had swelled his lungs to three times their normal weight. If Floyd “were found dead at home alone and no other apparent causes [existed], this would be acceptable to call [his death] an OD [overdose],” Baker added.
However, Baker still ruled Floyd’s death a homicide, as did an independent autopsy commissioned by the deceased’s family.
The officers’ attorneys attempted to introduce new evidence on Friday, though, regarding Floyd’s drug history. In 2019, he allegedly swallowed “large quantities of controlled substances” when stopped by police officers in Minneapolis, and was taken to hospital.
Judge Cahill denied the request. The four men’s trial is slated to start next March.
Floyd’s death in May ignited a powder keg of outrage across the US, with looting and vandalism in Minneapolis eventually morphing into several months of nationwide protests and riots.
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