A lawyer for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin requested a Minnesota Court of Appeals overturn Chauvin’s three convictions for the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
According to the Associated Press(AP), Chauvin’s lawyer, William Mohrman, said the convictions against his client should be overturned because legal errors prevented him from having a fair trial.
A Minnesota jury convicted Chauvin in April 2021 of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison by Judge Peter Cahill.
Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin pinned him to the ground for 9 1/2 minutes with his knee on his neck. The video of Chauvin placing his knee on Floyd’s neck while Floyd begged for his life sparked global protests against police brutality and racism in 2020. Chauvin also pleaded guilty in December 2021 to two federal civil rights charges and was sentenced to 21 years in prison in July 2022 for those convictions.
Due to publicity and protest concerns, Mohrman argued that Chauvin’s trial should have been held elsewhere. The state, represented by special prosecutor Neal Katyal, argued that Chauvin had “one of the most transparent and thorough trials in our nation’s history” and that the overwhelming publicity surrounding Floyd’s death made moving the trial out of Minneapolis unnecessary.
An appeals court judge told the AP Wednesday that the court would rule on Chauvin’s murder convictions within 90 days after hearing arguments from Chauvin’s lawyers and prosecutors.