Derek Chauvin Makes Another Attempt To Overturn George Floyd Murder Conviction

Chauvin claims new evidence will show that he didn't cause Floyd's death

Derek Chauvin just won’t quit.

The former Minneapolis police officer is trying to overturn his federal civil rights conviction in the 2020 murder of George Floyd…again, NBC News reported.

In a new motion filed in federal court on Nov. 13, Chauvin claims new evidence will show that he didn’t cause Floyd’s death. The convicted officer says he would have never pleaded guilty if he had known about the theories presented by a Kansas-based pathologist named Dr. William Schaetzel, who he started talking to in February. Schaetzel believes Floyd died from complications of a rare tumor called a paraganglioma, causing a fatal surge of adrenaline, not asphyxia from Chauvin’s actions.

“I can’t go to my grave with what I know,” Schaetzel said when explaining why he started communicating with Chauvin. “I just want the truth.”

While the pathologist didn’t examine Floyd’s body, he did review the autopsy report. Now, Chauvin is asking the judge who presided over his trial to throw out his conviction, and demanding a new trial or an evidentiary hearing.

Chauvin is currently serving a 21-year sentence in Arizona for the headlining case that brought the Black Lives Matter movement to greater prominence. The white former police officer was recorded on camera kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9½ minutes outside of a convenience store after Floyd allegedly tried to pay for something with a counterfeit $20 bill.

One the same video, Floyd can be heard crying out, “I can’t breathe,” igniting protests around the country and amplifying the conversation of the correlation between police brutality and racism.

Chauvin said he feels “no reasonable juror would have convicted” him if they had heard Schaetzel’s testimony, according to The Chicago Defender. This will be his third attempt to get his conviction overturned. A federal appeals court has twice rejected Chauvin’s requests for a rehearing. After his 2021 guilty plea to the federal charge, he waived his rights to appeal unless it was on the basis of an inadequate counsel.

He is currently awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court to hear his appeal on his state court murder conviction.