Biden administration blocking re-examination of George Floyd's heart

The Department of Justice has requested that a court block an attempt by Derek Chauvin's lawyers to re-examine George Floyd's heart. 

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota filed a motion on Tuesday asking a judge to reconsider his decision to allow Chauvin's legal team to look at Floyd's heart tissue and bodily fluids, among other evidence, to prove whether or not he actually died of a heart condition. 

The day before, US District Court Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that the former cop's team could examine the deceased man's autopsy report. 

Prosecutors from the US District Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota argued the request stems 'solely from an email [Chauvin] received from an unvetted doctor offering a weaker version of the medical defense than the version that the jury had previously rejected at his state trial.' 

The doctor, Kansas forensic pathologist William Schaetzel, contacted Chauvin's team after he entered his plea, proposing that Floyd had not died due to the officer kneeling on his neck for several minutes. 

Chauvin's latest bid to have his conviction tossed cites 'ineffective assistance of counsel' from original defense attorney Eric Nelson, whom he says failed to relay to him Schaetzel's theory that Chauvin did not cause Floyd’s death. 

Minnesota prosecutors argued that Chauvin's team choosing not to examine Floyd's heart at trial was a 'strategic decision that courts have recognized as "virtually unchallengeable."' 

'And even if [the] defendant could establish unreasonable performance, he could not demonstrate prejudice from counsel's decisions,' they wrote. 

'It defies belief that, if [the] defendant had been aware of a weaker medical defense theory than the one already rejected by his state jury, he would have chosen trial again, in the face of overwhelming evidence and a Guidelines sentence of life.' 

Prosecutors also argued that Dr. Andrew Baker, who performed Floyd's autopsy, testified during the trial that he didn't believe that the man's paraganglioma - a benign tumor found in Floyd's pelvis - had anything to do with his death. 

'I did look at it under the microscope,' he testified.

'The most likely diagnosis is a paraganglioma, but I have no reason to believe that had anything to do with Mr. Floyd's death.' 

Prosecutors added: 'Discovery on Dr. Schaetzel's opinion would not alter the reasonableness of [Chauvin's] choices.' 

On Monday, Judge Magnuson ruled that 'given the significant nature of the criminal case that Mr. Chauvin was convicted of' there was 'good cause to allow Mr. Chauvin to take the discovery that he seeks.' 

Legal experts also agree that Chauvin ought to be allowed to view the autopsy. 

Former Philadelphia Prosecutor David Gelman told Fox News: 'Chauvin should have every opportunity to exhaust his appeals just like any other defendant. If this was any other case, I bet the Justice Department wouldn't have objected.' 

The May 2020 encounter sparked swift public outcry as Floyd was an unarmed black man accused of a non-violent crime.

The North Carolina native had been suspected of using a fake $20 bill, leading to the fatal run-in with Chauvin and three other officers.

Attempting to restrain Floyd, Chauvin knelt on his neck and back for what officials would later deem was 9 minutes and 29 seconds, fatally asphyxiating him in the process.

In his final moments, Floyd uttered the words 'I can't breathe' - creating a rallying cry for a subsequent civil rights movement in the process.

Chauvin was convicted the following year, and is now a little more than three years into his 21-year federal prison sentence.

After his conviction, he was stabbed 22 times by an Mexican gangster in federal prison in 2023. 

John Turscak, 52, was charged with attempted murder after he attacked Chauvin at the prison library with an 'improvised knife.'

He reportedly told investigators he chose the day after Thanksgiving for its symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement, which was in part sparked by Floyd's murder.