The Minnesota court of appeals on Monday upheld the most serious murder conviction against the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, for the killing of George Floyd.
Chauvin is serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence on the second-degree murder count, arising from the death of Floyd on 25 May 2020.
Chauvin, who is white, used his knee to pin the Black man’s neck to the ground for more than nine minutes. Bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe” in a killing that fueled protests around the world.
Chauvin’s attorney, William Mohrman, asked the appeals court to throw out Chauvin’s convictions for reasons including massive pretrial publicity. He also argued that legal and procedural errors deprived Chauvin of a fair trial. Prosecutors said Chauvin got a fair trial and just sentence.
Mohrman argued that the case should have been moved out of Minneapolis.
“The primary issue on this appeal is whether a criminal defendant can get a fair trial consistent with constitutional requirements in a courthouse surrounded by concrete block, barbed wire, two armored personnel carriers, and a squad of national guard troops, all of which or whom are there for one purpose: in the event that the jury acquits the defendant,” Mohrman said in January.
But Neal Katyal, a special attorney for the state, argued that Chauvin got “one of the most transparent and thorough trials in our nation’s history … Chauvin’s many arguments before this court do not come close to justifying reversal”.
A Hennepin county judge, Peter Cahill, sentenced Chauvin after jurors found him guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge and was sentenced to 21 years, concurrent with his state sentence.
“Judge Cahill managed this trial with enormous care, and even if Chauvin could identify some minor fault, any error is harmless,” Katyal said. “The evidence of Chauvin’s guilt was captured on video for the world to see.”
Mohrman argued that the judge should have moved the trial and sequestered the jury: that publicity and riots, the city’s $27m settlement with Floyd’s family announced during jury selection, unrest over a police killing of a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb during jury selection, and the sealing off of the courthouse were just some factors prejudicing Chauvin’s chance of a fair trial.
He also focused on a juror who participated in a civil rights event, commemorating the Rev Martin Luther King Jr’s March on Washington, a few months after Floyd’s death. The juror was questioned during selection about whether he had participated in any demonstrations or marches “in Minneapolis” against police brutality after Floyd’s death. Chauvin’s original attorney, Eric Nelson, did not ask if he marched elsewhere. Only after the trial did the juror reveal he had marched elsewhere.
Mohrman said Cahill should have held to determine juror misconduct. He said the appeals court should send the case back to Cahill on that issue, a request Cahill denied.
Other disputes in the appeal included whether it was legally permissible to convict Chauvin of third-degree murder, given a 2021 Minnesota supreme court decision clarifying the definition of that crime, and whether Cahill was justified in exceeding the 12-and-a-half years recommended under state sentencing guidelines.
#Minnesota #appeals #court #upholds #Derek #Chauvins #murder #conviction #George #Floyd
