Derek Chauvin is once again trying to undo his murder conviction in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, this time alleging misconduct by prosecutors and flawed expert testimony in a new legal filing submitted in Minnesota.
The former Minneapolis police officer, who is serving overlapping state and federal sentences totaling more than 20 years, filed a petition for post-conviction relief on November 20.
The filing claims prosecutors acted improperly and that expert medical witnesses gave inaccurate testimony about Floyd’s cause of death. It also accuses Minneapolis police officials of lying under oath when they testified that the knee-to-neck restraint Chauvin used was not part of department training.
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Chauvin, 42, became a national symbol of police violence after a video showed him pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes on May 25, 2020. His legal team now contends that the restraint was consistent with MPD policy at the time and that testimony to the contrary amounted to perjury.
The petition also challenges the presentation of video evidence to the jury and disputes the instructions jurors received before deliberations. Chauvin’s attorneys argue that these elements, when combined, deprived him of due process.
This isn’t Chauvin’s first attempt to overturn the conviction. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.
Chauvin has served about five years of his 22.5-year state sentence. His legal team is now asking for either a complete retrial or an evidentiary hearing to examine the claims raised in the petition. A judge has given the state until January 4 to respond.
Floyd’s death ignited a global outcry and renewed demands for police reform. Chauvin’s conviction was viewed by many as a rare instance of accountability in cases involving law enforcement and the deaths of Black Americans.
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