The U.S. Supreme Court rejected former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's latest appeal attempt Monday, just a week after he filed a new motion attempting to overturn his federal conviction in the murder of George Floyd.
U.S. Supreme Court rejects review of Derek Chauvin's latest appeal attempt
Chauvin, 47, remains incarcerated at a medium-security federal prison in Tucson, Ariz.
November 20, 2023 at 4:29PM
The court did not give an explanation for the rejection. It was included in a long list of other cases it declined to review.
In the motion to vacate his federal sentence filed last Monday, Chauvin said that he would not have pleaded guilty in his federal case if his attorney at the time, Eric Nelson, had informed him that a pathologist offered to testify that Chauvin didn't cause Floyd's death.
Floyd's murder in May 2020, when Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, sparked a global reckoning over race and policing.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled Floyd's death a homicide after he had cardiac arrest likely caused by the restraint. Doctors hired by Floyd's family said they believe he died of asphyxia. Chauvin's defense argued at trial that Floyd died of natural causes related to drug use.
After reviewing the motion, Minneapolis attorney Joe Tamburino said it would be a "long shot" for Chauvin to be awarded a new trial.
Chauvin, 47, remains incarcerated at a medium-security federal prison in Tucson, Ariz.
A Hennepin County jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in April 2021. He was sentenced to 22½ years in prison that June and later pleaded guilty in federal court.
A federal judge sentenced him to more than 20 years in prison for violating the civil rights of Floyd and a Black Minneapolis teen when Chauvin used excessive force during an encounter in 2017.
Chauvin has filed multiple failed appeals.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals in April rejected his request for a new trial outside Hennepin County after Chauvin argued pretrial publicity — the global unrest, media coverage and calls for police reform — made a fair trial impossible. A three-judge panel issued a unanimous 50-page decision rejecting his request.
Neal Katyal, who was acting U.S. solicitor general during the Obama administration and served as one of the special prosecutors in Chauvin's murder trial, said in his oral argument that it was one of the most transparent, thorough trials in U.S. history and Chauvin's appeal arguments do not come close to reversing his convictions.
Staff writer Louis Krauss contributed to this report.
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