Derek Chauvin, who sits behind bars today for the 2020 killing of George Floyd, wants the Minnesota Supreme Court to review his murder conviction.
In documents filed on Wednesday, the former Minneapolis police officer’s attorneys once again argued that the district court denied him the right to a fair trial by rejecting his request for a venue change despite “pervasive adverse publicity,” CNN reported.
Chauvin’s legal team said these factors justified a new trial, requesting that the state’s top court review the state Court of Appeals’ April ruling.
A three-judge Minnesota Court of Appeals panel upheld Chauvin’s conviction and rejected his request for a new trial in a 50-page decision last month, finding that he failed to demonstrate actual prejudice.
Chauvin’s attorney, William Mohrman, cited more than a dozen instances in his April 2022 submission to the appeals court that he claimed stained the prosecution and conviction and made the proceeding “structurally defective.”
The list included the city’s declaration during jury selection that it would pay Floyd’s family a $27 million settlement, along with protests outside the courtroom and substantial pretrial publicity, CNN reported.
Chauvin and his lawyers requested that the appeals court consider whether — due to pretrial protests and widespread media attention — postponing his murder trial, changing its venue or fully sequestering the jury was warranted.
The appeal papers also accused prosecutors of wrongdoing, alleging they did not correctly disclose information obtained through discovery or fully prepare witnesses for the prosecution.
Body camera footage and witness accounts revealed that Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, as the Black man gasped for air and told officers, “I can’t breathe.”
A week later, the state Department of Human Rights initiated an investigation that revealed that Minneapolis and its police force had “a pattern or practice of race discrimination,” according to its subsequent report, released in 2022
In April 2021, a jury convicted Chauvin of third-degree murder, second-degree unintentional murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He received 22.5 years in prison, longer than the recommended 10 to 15 years under Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines.
Judge Peter Cahill said in a memorandum at the time that the case called for a harsher punishment since Chauvin “abused his position of trust and authority” and treated Floyd “without respect and denied him the dignity owed to all human beings.”
Chauvin later pleaded guilty to federal charges that he had violated Floyd’s civil rights. In that case, he received a 21-year prison term to run concurrently with his state sentence.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, Chauvin is housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, a medium-security facility with a detention center.
The Minnesota Supreme Court has yet to say if it will review the decision.
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