Judge allows tissue samples from George Floyd to be tested as officer seeks new trial on civil rights conviction
A judge has given Derek Chauvin’s lawyers permission to examine tissue samples from George Floyd’s body. It is part of the former Minneapolis police officer Efforts to challenge his federal conviction of Violation of Floyd’s civil rights after he was too convicted of Floyd’s murder in 2020.
U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson granted the order Monday, agreeing to allow the defense to examine Floyd’s heart tissue and fluid samples. This is intended to test the theory that Floyd died of heart disease aggravated by a rare tumor and not, as prosecutors claim, of asphyxiation caused by the white officer’s knee on his neck for nine and a half years of Black Pressed Minutes in May 2020.
Chauvin’s federal defense attorney for his appeal, Robert Meyers, argued that Chauvin’s original attorney, Eric Nelson, failed to inform his client that an outside pathologist who was not directly involved in the case, Dr. William Schaetzel, who contacted Nelson before Chauvin entered his plea, put forward the unprompted theory that Chauvin was not responsible for Floyd’s death.
Chauvin claims that this amounted to “ineffective assistance,” and that is the case looking for a new process, He said he would not have pleaded guilty if he had known about the pathologist.
But federal prosecutors have argued in court filings that Nelson made a reasonable “tactical decision” not to consider an unvetted opinion “expressed by someone claiming to be an expert.”
The Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the murder conviction
They pointed out that Nelson consulted other medical experts in preparing Chauvin’s cases, including one who testified in state court, but that the jury in that case rejected Chauvin’s medical defense. Federal prosecutors also noted that the legal hurdles to pursuing a lawsuit based on ineffective legal advice are very high.
Nelson declined to comment Tuesday.
Chauvin was convicted in state court on murder charges in 2021 and pleaded guilty later that year in federal court for violating Floyd’s civil rights. He is currently serving his 20-year federal civil rights sentence and his 22.5-year murder sentence concurrently in a federal prison in Texas.
The US Supreme Court rejected Chauvin’s appeal his murder conviction last year.
Floyd’s death and his deathly cries of “I can’t breathe” sparked protests around the world – some of them became violent – and forced a Reckoning with police brutality and racism.
