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One of George Floyd’s brothers said Monday that the family is expecting lawyers to “assassinate” their late brother’s character during the trial of the ex-cop charged with his murder.
Philonise Floyd, 41, said the family has “prayed a lot” as they prepare for Monday’s opening statements in Derek Chauvin’s trial — while knowing the former cop’s defense will blame George’s death on drugs and his lifestyle.
“We talked about what we know they’re trying to do, They’re gonna try to assassinate his character,” Philonese told “CBS This Morning” Monday, just hours before the trial was set to begin.
He spoke alongside civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who said that he had prepared the family to expect Chauvin’s lawyers to do everything they can to “distract” from the “torture video” of his fatal arrest last May.
“His cause of death was overdose of excessive force,” Crump insisted, predicting that the defense will instead blame the “trace amount of drugs in his system” for George’s death.
“Everything that you’re going to hear today is just an attempt to assassinate his character now that they unjustly killed this black man,” Crump told Gayle King.
“This murder case is not hard. You just look at that torture video of George Floyd,” he said.
Calling his late brother “an amazing person,” Philonise praised the support of those “doing everything they can to make sure we get a conviction.”
“I just want to thank all of the protesters for going out fighting through a pandemic — they put their lives on the line for what was right, and I want to thank them for that,” he said.
“They’re not just doing this for anybody, they’re doing this for somebody who they know should still be here living and speaking right now with us,” he said.
“We loved our brother, and know a lot of people around the world loved him.”
Chauvin is charged with unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The trial is expected to last about four weeks at the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. It will be livestreamed, with CourtTV promising “live, gavel-to-gavel” coverage from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. EST.
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