Lawyer Defends Police Officer Arrested over George Floyd's Killing | Good Morning Britain

Earl Grey is the lawyer for Thomas Lane one of the offices charged with aiding abetting the murder of George Floyd and he joins us now from Minneapolis good morning tea mr. gray we've spoke to Benjamin Crump who is the attorney for the Floyd family they are not happy that Derek Chauvin is only getting a charge of second-degree murder I want it to be first-degree murder what is your reaction to that I do not represent mr. Shaw officer Shaw then or miss mr. Schulman I haven't paid much attention to what he should be charged with Fort Worth or what he shouldn't be charged with we've seen the video right make a guess they saw the video what's your professional assessment as to whether that what we saw for nearly nine minutes constitutes first or second degree murder are you talking about sobbing and that Thomas Wayne I'll talk about solving first yeah well my assessment of that I have not thought about it because I'm not representing him I'm representing Thomas Lane I haven't looked at the video to make excuse me to make an assessment about what shavon did if you want to ask that question you should probably should talk to his lawyer well we're gonna we're gonna do that but I gotta say I'm slightly aghast that you represent one of the four police officers involved in this case and you say you haven't looked at that video properly to assess whether Derek Chauvin may have may have been responsible I did not say I had not looked at the video I said I did not look at the video with the intent to analyze mr. Xiamen I looked at the video and it was my clients body camera then I looked at to assess his involvement in his culpability I think elgran what you're trying to say is that legally you have a responsibility of course in the defense of Thomas lane one of the police officers and not for Derek Sherman I think maybe it might be misunderstood by viewers that you don't show an interest in the video or the actions of Derrick Chauvin but what I think people will be asking when because you are representing Thomas Lane the question that will be on many people's minds is that the main perpetrator was Derrick Chauvin because he held his knee on George Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds why didn't Tommy slain step in to stop him okay Thomas Wayne was on his fourth day of being a police officer shavon had 20 years as a police officer and I apologize for my voice it's late here it's not early anyway show that he had 20 years a police department has ran like a military service you have officers you have experienced police officers and then you have rookies and you have officers that are on the job for days in any event my client said twice shall we roll him over one claim he thought he was suffering I can't remember exactly what he said in delirium my client was down by George Floyd's feet he was not up by the neck he was holding his feet because George Floyd had resisted being handcuffed and he had resisted going into the back of the squad car okay you'll try missed your client I'm sorry your client must have heard as we've all heard it must have heard George Floyd crying out 16 times in five minutes that he couldn't breathe when you hear a human being when you hear a human being say I can't breathe that number of times what why don't you just say this guy can't breathe we need to stop and dying well what would you have done he said twice shall we roll him over you know what I would have done I would have got up and I would have said I'm really sorry but this guy is dying in front of us I'm not going to be party to it that's humane reaction was very good that's a very good hindsight but you're not a police officer it's a homicide wait her up me all the time right do I get to talk and you can argue you're not a police officer a police officer is trained to follow orders and he was following his belief that they were doing right okay Thomas Laney is a police officer of course and I know that your argument is he was a rookie and had only done four shifts and he was up against a man who had 20 years of service but underneath that man's knee was a man who was dying and I think a lot of people think common humanity basic humanity would have required someone to step in but apart from that apart from that can I just say there is a policy in the police force that is a duty to intervene saying officers are required to either stop or attempt to stop another sworn employee when force is being inappropriately applied or is no longer required so the argument that he was a junior police officer is already covered by the fact that he had a duty to intervene whatever the state status of the other officer you obviously are very opinionated and biased what you do not understand is what goes through the head of a police officer on his fourth day in a situation where the individual he had arrested originally was under the influence of drugs he was resisting being handcuffed he resisted going back into us back to he resisted being in a squad car when he was on the ground he was resisting while he was resisting going into the squad car he also said then I can't breathe he claimed he had claustrophobia he he resisted then he's lying on the ground I agree he said he can't breathe and that is why my client said the shaman should we roll him over he said that twice he'll slide yo client poor guy if nothing wrong yeah well we're gonna come to what your client did or didn't do your client my client went into the ambulance and tried to revive this yeah it's to lay off mostly had no intent to murder this man no client was one of video your client with respect your client was one of four four police officers who held down George Floyd and rendered him unconscious rendered unconscious and carried on holding him down for nearly another three minutes and my client down by the feet knew that knew that he was totally unconscious and carry on he didn't know that your client heard a man shout sixteen times I can't breathe he heard passers-by did he shout they're really he didn't say I can't breathe why did he say I can't breathe when he's when they're trying to put him into the squad car Paul says my policy was by losses by was shouting at the police officers get off him he can't breathe they were further away further away than your client was why didn't any of the other people standing there intervene if you're saying anybody should have one your client whose job is to protect people what is your client take George Floyd you you you know it's really too bad you're so opinionated yeah isn't it awful isn't it awful I have an opinion about a black man being killed at the hands of you know what the race issue and there is no race issue here ready to two of the four officers one is white and the other ones Asian answer that one I don't have to answer any of anyone no I don't have to answer anything to you either because you obviously don't know what you're talking about any what I do know what I'm talking about okay do you realize that your whole performance here merely tells the world how disgusting actually even the people representing these police officers are well thank you for the compliment because it wasn't a compliment if you think I'm gonna here and listen to your talk bad about my client I'm not listening that if you would have told me that an hour ago and I did agree to stay up I would have not agreed to I don't know client pulled a gun your client pulled a gun on George Floyd 90 seconds after he first met him why did he do that why well because he did not show his hands once he put his hands on a steering wheel he put the gun in his holster why did he do that because now his hands were shown there on the steering wheel there good night happy birthday look everybody is entitled to legal representation you know what yeah he needs another lawyer and that guy shouldn't be practicing law that was one of the most disgraceful interviews I've ever watched with a lawyer probably in my entire career yeah that was quite an extraordinary interview absolutely disgraceful you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 973,775

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, Debate, George Floyd, Thomas Lane, Heated, debate, racism, lawyer, USA, US, America, Donald Trump, Protest, Black Lives Matter

Id: kWThKkDU42g

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 08 2020