Chauvin seeks retrial
Minneapolis: Former police officer Derek Chauvin has asked a Minneapolis judge for a new trial, court records show, two weeks after he was found guilty of seconddegree and thirddegree murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd.
In a series of motions filed yesterday to District Court Judge Peter Cahill, Chauvin’s lawyer Eric Nelson said his client was deprived of a fair trial, adding there was prosecutorial and jury misconduct, errors of law at trial and that the verdict was contrary to law.
On April 20, a 12member jury found Chauvin guilty on all three counts he faced after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, including bystanders, police officials and medical experts.
The rare verdict against a police officer is considered a milestone in the fraught racial history of the United States and a rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of Black Americans.