Ex-Officer Derek Chauvin cites new evidence in attempt to overturn George Floyd murder conviction

Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin is arguing that new evidence proves he did not cause the 2020 death of George Floyd as part of an attempt to overturn his federal civil rights conviction.

Chauvin said he would never have pleaded guilty to the 2021 charge if he was aware of the theories from a Kansas pathologist with whom he began corresponding earlier this year, according to a motion filed in federal court this week, The Associated Press reported. 

Chauvin is requesting the judge who oversaw his trial to toss his conviction and order a new trial or an evidentiary hearing at the very least. 

Chauvin was sentenced in July 2022 to more than two decades in prison for violating Floyd's federal civil rights when the then-officer arrested Floyd and pinned him to the ground for more than 9 minutes as he died. Floyd's death sparked mass Black Lives Matter protests and riots across the United States during the summer of 2020.

Kansas Dr. William Schaetzel told Chauvin that after reviewing autopsy reports, he believes Floyd died from complications of a rare tumor that can spark a fatal adrenaline surge. 

Prosecutors argued during the 2021 state trial that Floyd died as a result of Chauvin's actions, not because of an underlying health condition or drug use.

When Chauvin pleaded guilty in December 2021 to the federal charge, he waived his appeal rights, except for on the basis of ineffective counsel. A federal appeals court already rejected Chauvin's rehearing requests twice.

However, Chauvin alleges in this appeal that Schaetzel contacted his trial attorney, Eric Nelson, in 2021, along with the judge and prosecution in the state murder trial, but that Nelson never informed him about the pathologist or his theories. Chauvin also claims that Nelson failed to challenge the federal charge's constitutionality.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not decided whether it will hear his appeal of his state convictions on second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

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