Unjustly convicted former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin has asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to hold off on an appeal of a second postconviction petition so his attorney can fight his original conviction for the “murder” of career criminal and drug addict George Floyd.
Chauvin was convicted in April 2021 of murdering Floyd with a supposedly non-approved neck restraint. The evidence showed that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose.
The railroaded cop’s appeals have gone nowhere. Maybe the legal eagles in Minnesota’s judiciary fear riots should they do the right thing.
Now Chauvin wants a chance to file a petition with the Hennepin County District Court — the original trial venue — on three grounds, one of which is that the prosecutors did not convene a grand jury to indict him.
The “Murder”
Chauvin’s legal nightmare began when Floyd tried to pass off a $20 counterfeit bill to buy cigarettes at a store in Minneapolis.
Cops were called, and during the arrest, Floyd resisted. That forced Chauvin to take him down and restrain him with a knee to the back of the neck. Floyd claimed he couldn’t breathe, which suggested that Chauvin was asphyxiating him. However, he began saying “I can’t breathe” when cops attempted to put him in a police car — before Chauvin restrained him.
End result: Video went viral. A show trial was convened. Floyd’s autopsy was ignored. President Joe Biden demanded a “fair” result. Far-left Democratic Representative Maxine Waters of California led an angry mob that terrified the jury. Both put the case in legal jeopardy.
Nonetheless, the jury found Chauvin guilty of the following crimes:
- unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony;
- third-degree murder, perpetrating an eminently dangerous act; and,
- second-degree manslaughter, culpable negligence, creating an unreasonable risk.
So Chauvin went to prison.
Ignored in all the caterwauling from the Black Lives Matter crowd was one important fact: Chauvin didn’t murder Floyd. As The New American reported at the time, Chauvin never should have been tried because the final autopsy report was clear.
Evidence Ignored
Floyd suffered from “severe” coronary artery disease and high blood pressure, as well as an enlarged heart, and had a “clinical history of hypertension.” The medical examiner found “no life-threatening injuries.” And, crucially, the autopsy revealed “no facial, oral mucosal, or conjunctival petechiae.”
The absence of petechiae — small red or purple spots in the eyes or skin from bleeding capillaries — is significant because they occur in upwards of 85 percent of strangulation or traumatic asphyxia deaths.
A nasal swab revealed that Floyd also had Covid-19.
The autopsy additionally revealed the load of drugs coursing through Floyd’s circulatory system as he claimed “I can’t breathe.” Again, those cries began as cops attempted to put him in a police car — before Chauvin restrained him.
A memo from Assistant County Attorney Amy Sweasy, written for the prosecutors’ file on Chauvin, recounted a conversation with a colleague, Patrick Lofton, and Dr. Andrew Baker, the county medical examiner.
“Dr. Baker said he had (and had recently received) the final toxicology results from Mr. George Floyd’s samples which were analyzed by NMS labs,” Sweasy wrote.
She recounted Baker’s rendition of the drugs in Floyd’s system:
• 4ANPP — a precursor and metabolite of fentanyl present in Mr. Floyd’s blood.
• Methamphetamine — 19 ng/ML which he described as “very near the low end” and “a stimulant hard on the heart.”
• Fentanyl — 11. He said, “that’s pretty high.” This level of fentanyl can cause pulmonary edema. Mr. Floyd’s lungs were 2-3x their normal weight at autopsy. That is a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances.
• Norfentanyl — 5.6 a metabolite of fentanyl.
Sweasy included Baker’s most important conclusion: “If Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he would conclude that it was an overdose death.”
Yet as TNA’s Selwyn Duke reported, citing emergency room physician John Dunn, though Baker found “no life threatening injuries,” the medical examiner “changed his position after phone calls from Washington, D.C., pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell, who warned Baker in two phone calls that he would publicly accuse him of misconduct unless neck compression appeared in the autopsy report. Within days, the final autopsy did include ‘neck compression.’”
Latest Appeals; Reactions
Now, Chauvin wants another shot at the county court that wrongly convicted him.
Yesterday, his attorney Gregory J. Joseph filed a brief that “argues that newly identified constitutional violations created ‘structural error’ in the original proceedings, depriving courts of jurisdiction and requiring immediate dismissal of the charges against Chauvin,” WDAY radio reported.
While Chauvin’s appeals have repeatedly failed, he filed another in June to argue against the Minnesota Court of Appeals’ dismissal in May of a second postconviction petition. Now Chauvin wants that appeal put on hold because of newly discovered violations of his due-process rights.
“Chauvin’s defense became aware of additional due process violations after appealing the second petition in late June 2026,” WDAY continued, citing the motion:
The third postconviction petition challenges the initial prosecution authority, citing:
- An unlawful assignment of authority by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to Attorney General Keith Ellison to prosecute the case.
- The failure of the Hennepin County District Court to convene a grand jury as required by law.
- Failures by the Hennepin County Attorney and Attorney General to secure an indictment prior to making a charging decision.
The motion argues these omissions constitute structural errors — basic trial defects that cannot be waived or procedurally barred — rendering the original charges and conviction invalid due to a lack of jurisdiction.
Thus, Chauvin wants the appeals court to temporarily table the appeal filed in June and permit the county circuit to hear the latest petition alleging prosecutorial error.
Chauvin has a top supporter in Tesla tycoon Elon Musk. “Free Chauvin,” he wrote today on X.
“Derek Chauvin was unjustly convicted of murder, therefore he should be freed,” the X proprietor continued:
The facts show that he was not the cause of death, nor did he at any time intend for a death to occur. Whatever else he may be, he is not a murderer.
That is the truth.
Wrote independent journalist Nick Sortor:
Derek Chauvin is … simply a political prisoner of Tim Walz.
What they did to him is absolutely evil.
Derek Chauvin is a simply a political prisoner of Tim Walz.
What they did to him is absolutely evil.
