The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin’s appeal of his conviction in the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Chauvin had requested that the high court hear his case after a Minnesota appellate court upheld his 2021 conviction and turned down a new trial. He claimed that jury and judge bias violated his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.
Chauvin, who is white, is serving a 22 1/2-year prison sentence for killing Floyd, who is Black, by pushing his knee into Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes during an arrest. Video footage went viral on social media showing Floyd crying out, “I can’t breathe,” leading to mass protests worldwide.
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Chauvin, who was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, argued that his trial was affected by negative publicity and appealed to the Supreme Court that he was unfairly denied a location change. He said that Minneapolis jurors were pushed to find him guilty to avoid threats of violence against them and their families.
His attorney wrote, “Mr. Chauvin’s case shows the profound difficulties trial courts have to ensure a criminal defendant’s right to an impartial jury consistently when extreme cases arise.”
In a separate trial, Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal charges that he violated Floyd’s civil rights. On Nov. 13, he filed a motion in an attempt to reverse the conviction, asserting that there was new information showing that Floyd died from an underlying medical condition.
