President Joe Biden will host George Floyd’s family at the White House on the one-year anniversary of his d**th on Tuesday, attorney Ben Crump confirmed on Twitter Saturday. Floyd, a African- American who was in police cust*dy in Minneapolis for allegedly spending a counterfeit $20 bill, pass-es- away on May 25, 2020, after former officer Derek Chauvin p!nned his knee to Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes.
Last June, Biden, 78, met with the Floyd family when he traveled to Houston, Texas, ahead of Floyd’s final memorial. Biden also tap-ed a video message that played during the funeral service. The president did not attend because his Secret Service team did not want to cause any d!srupt!ons.
Biden has also sp-oken with Floyd’s family on other occasions, including when he and Vice President Kamala Harris talked with Floyd’s brother Philonise over the phone after Chauvin’s gu!lty v!rd!ct was announced last month.
In April, jurors found Chauvin, 45, guilty of second-degree m****, third-degree m**** and manslaughter in the k!ll!ng of Floyd, whose d*at* was caught on a viral video that fu-eled a national reckoning on social justice, race and police brutality.
The 12 jurors who reached the verdict were made up of five men and seven women — six white, four Black, and two who identified themselves as mixed race. The recommended sentence in Minnesota for a first-time offender found guilty is 12-and-a-half years in prison for either second- or third-degree murder, and four years for second-degree manslaughter.
Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson, argued that Chauvin was only following his police training and protocol in his restraint of Floyd and that it was not pressure applied by Chauvin to Floyd’s neck that contributed to Floyd’s d*at*, but rather Floyd’s history of underlying health conditions and d*** use.
Nelson further alleged that a cro-wd of onlo-okers who appeared to grow a-ng* presented a thr-eat to Chauvin, guiding his actions.
Chauvin will be sentenced at a later date. Three other now-former officers on the scene with Chauvin — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — all were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree m**** and second-degree manslaughter, and will be tr-ied apart from Chauvin this summer. All have pleaded not gu!lty.
After Chauvin’s guilty verdict, Biden and Harris applauded the decision while recognizing that there is still much progress to be made when it comes to policing and racial injustice in the United States.
At the time, Biden said the j!ry’s decision was “a giant step towards justice in America,” but added it was still “not enough.”
“African- American , in particular, have been treated throughout the course of our history as less than human. Their lives must be valued in our nation. Full stop,” Biden said, recognizing that no amount of progress or justice would bring Floyd back to his grieving loved ones. “Nothing can ever bring their brother, their father back, but this can be a giant step forward in the march towards justice in America,” he said.
“It was a m**** in the full light of day and it ripped the blind-ers off the whole world to see,” Biden continued, going on to call s!stem!c r*c*sm “a stain on our nation’s soul.”