Derek Chauvin To Ask U.S. Supreme Court To Overturn Murder Conviction

MINNEAPOLIS — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his state murder conviction in the killing of George Floyd. Chauvin and his attorney apparently made the decision after the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.

A Hennepin County jury found Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter in April 2021. The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld that decision earlier this spring, stating that Chauvin's legal team failed to show actual prejudice by the jury.

The former office argues that he was not given a fair trial. He said the Hennepin County district court abused its discretion by denying Chauvin’s motions to change the venue and sequester the jury during the trial. Chauvin also said the jury in his case was influenced by the riots and street violence that broke out in Minneapolis after Floyd's death.

"This criminal trial generated the most amount of pretrial publicity in history," said Chauvin’s attorney, William Mohrmann, after the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision came down Wednesday.

"More concerning are the riots which occurred after George Floyd’s death (and) led the jurors to all express concerns for their safety in the event they acquitted Mr. Chauvin — safety concerns which were fully evidenced by surrounding the courthouse in barbed wire and National Guard troops during the trial and deploying the National Guard throughout Minneapolis prior to jury deliberations."

The former office faces long odds at the U.S. Supreme Court, which only hears about 100 to 150 appeals out of the 7,000 cases it gets asked to review every year.

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.