Global Courant 2023-05-18 06:58:42
Derek Chauvin, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin convicted of the murder of George Floyd, is appealing to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Chauvin’s attorney, William Mohrman, filed a petition for review in the state’s highest court on Wednesday, arguing that the district judge’s decision not to move the proceedings out of town deprived his client of due process.
FILE: Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin addresses the court as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over Chauvin’s sentencing at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. (Court TV via AP)
The petition comes a month after the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld Chauvin’s first-degree murder conviction and upheld his 22.5-year sentence.
Morhman had unsuccessfully asked the appeals court to quash the ex-officer’s conviction for a long list of reasons, including the massive publicity for the trial. But the three-judge panel sided with prosecutors, who said Chauvin received a fair trial and a just sentence.
Chauvin brings up several of those arguments again in his latest call.
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Floyd, who is Black, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is White, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9-1/2 minutes despite his cries that he couldn’t breathe.
Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests – some of which turned violent – and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.
If the Minnesota Supreme Court were to agree to Chauvin’s appeal, it would seek detailed instructions from both sides and later set a date for oral arguments.
FILE: James Stapleton holds his son Kareem, 11, after they prayed for George Floyd this afternoon following the murder conviction of Derek Chauvin at the mural painted by Detour and Hiero in Denver, Colo., on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. (Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Morhman said the case presents the state Supreme Court with important questions about “developing and clarifying due process requirements to transfer venue when there is unprecedented pervasive publicity for the trial associated with community violence.”
He also wrote that it raises possible misconduct by jurors. A juror participated in a civil rights event commemorating Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s march. in Washington, D.C., a few months after Floyd’s death.
Only after the trial did the juror reveal that he had been there. The Court of Appeal declined to return the case to the trial judge for a hearing on whether the juror’s secrecy constituted misconduct.
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Chauvin pleaded guilty to a separate federal civil rights charge and was sentenced to 21 years in prison, which he is now serving in Arizona, concurrent with his state sentence.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bradford Betz is a Fox News Digital breaking reporter covering crime, political issues and much more.
