DOJ urges judge to reverse decision allowing Derek Chauvin to review George Floyd's heart in appeal

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge in Minnesota to reconsider his order that allows former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin and his team to re-examine George Floyd's heart as part of an appeal of his plea that he violated Floyd's civil rights.

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's 2020 death, and pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges which he has sought to appeal in light of new evidence.

United States District Court Judge Paul Magnuson on Monday agreed to let Chauvin's lawyers review Floyd's heart tissue and histology slides, photographs of his heart, and samples of Floyd's bodily fluids, after a doctor argued Floyd died of a heart attack instead of the former police officer's actions.

Prosecutors filed a 10-page response to the judge's order on Tuesday that claimed there was "no legal basis" for the requests, per Fox News.

"No legal basis exists for [his] discovery requests, all of which stem solely from an email he received from an unvetted doctor offering a weaker version of the medical defense than the version that the jury had previously rejected at his state trial," the prosecutors wrote. 

They also countered his argument that he had an ineffective counsel at his original trial, arguing that his former counsel's decision not to test the heart was a "strategic decision" that was "virtually unchallengeable." 

The judge said since the requests were directly related to the doctor's theory, he could review the discovery.

"Given the significant nature of the criminal case that Mr. Chauvin was convicted of, and given that the discovery that Mr. Chauvin seeks could support [the doctor's] opinion of how Mr. Floyd died, the Court finds that there is good cause to allow Mr. Chauvin to take the discovery that he seeks," Magnuson wrote in his order.

Although Chauvin is attempting to appeal his guilty plea, the United States Supreme Court declined to review his murder case last year.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.