The former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd has appealed his conviction for murder, arguing that the court was intimidated by the ongoing protests and biased by the excessive pre-trial publicity, among others. Derek Chauvin’s lawyers asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals in a court hearing earlier this week to overturn his conviction, overturn the verdict and order a new trial in a new location or remand. A Minneapolis court last year found Chauvin guilty of killing Floyd, an unarmed black man whose death sparked nationwide protests in 2020 calling for an end to police violence and racism against blacks. A judge later sentenced the former officer to 22.5 years in prison. Chauvin held his knee to Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, as the 46-year-old repeatedly begged that he could not breathe. This week, Chauvin’s lawyer, William Mohrman, presented a series of controversies over his conviction, including his long-held argument that the trial should not have taken place in Hennepin County, where Floyd was killed. “The overwhelming media coverage exposed jurors – literally daily – to news that demonized Savin and glorified Floyd, which was more than enough to justify the bias,” the report said. Mohrman said several potential jurors expressed concern when selecting jurors that if Chauvin was acquitted they would fear for their personal safety and worry about more violence. He said several of them said they were intimidated by security measures taken in court to protect protesters from the protesters. The testimony also alleges that Daunte Wright was fatally shot by a police officer in nearby Brooklyn during Chauvin’s trial. He said jurors should have been arrested after the election to avoid bias from reports of the murder. He also cited a $ 27 million settlement reached between the city and Floyd’s family, which was announced at the jury selection, citing the timing of the biased jurors in the case. Morman pointed to several cases of alleged prosecutorial misconduct, alleging the untimely exchange of evidence, the inability to disclose and the rejection of documents by the government. The testimony also stated that the judge did not apply the sentencing instructions correctly and should not have included the “abuse of power” as an aggravating factor for the former police officer. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has 45 days to respond to Savin’s briefing. The testimony came days after a state investigation launched after Floyd’s assassination concluded that Minneapolis police were involved in an illegal “pattern or practice” of racial discrimination. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights said in its 75-page report Wednesday that Minneapolis police are arresting and using violence against people of color, especially blacks, more often than whites in similar settings. Minneapolis police have been using covert social media to track down blacks and black organizations unrelated to any criminal activity, he said, while also using consistently racist, misogynistic and disrespectful language. Officers and supervisors receive inadequate training that emphasized a paramilitary approach and there is a lack of accountability for officers who commit misconduct, the report said.
