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.
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.
