Derek Chauvin asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals in a testimony Monday to overturn his conviction and order a new trial in a new location or re-order his conviction. Last June, Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Chauvin to 22 years in prison after jurors found him guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree murder. Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin nailed the black man to the ground with his knee to his neck for up to 9 1/2 minutes. Floyd had been accused of passing a counterfeit $ 20 bill to a convenience store. Three other police officers were charged in the case. Chauvin’s lawyer, William Mohrman, set out a number of disputes over the 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 every day – to news that demonized Savin and glorified Floyd, which was more than enough to suggest bias,” the report said. People raise their fists and hold a portrait of Floyd during a rally following Chauvin’s guilty verdict on April 20, 2021, in Atlanta, Ga. Chauvin was convicted of killing Floyd, who was black, by nailing him to the ground and kneeling on his neck. (Elijah Nouvelage / AFP / Getty Images)
Some jurors worry about safety, they appeal
In the months following Floyd’s assassination, protesters took to the streets in Minneapolis and across the country to protest police violence and racism. Some of these disturbances were violent. Mohrman said several potential jurors had 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 says jurors should have been excluded 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 cited several cases of alleged prosecutorial misconduct, claiming that timely evidence, inability to disclose and rejection of documents by the government were not shared. The testimony also states 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 appeal came as the Minnesota Department of Human Rights released the results of a nearly two-year investigation that began after Floyd’s death. The Minneapolis Police Department has been found to have been involved in a pattern of racial discrimination for at least a decade, including stopping and arresting blacks at a higher rate than whites, using violence more often in people of color and maintaining a culture where racist language is tolerated.
