Judge reinstates third-degree murder charge in Derek Chauvin trial

MINNEAPOLIS — The judge overseeing the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of George Floyd reinstated a third-degree murder charge in the case Thursday, paving the way for the trial to proceed as scheduled.

The decision was a victory for prosecutors who had sought to restore the charge against Derek Chauvin, the white officer filmed with his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during a police investigation last May. He is already charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the Black man’s death. The addition gives prosecutors another avenue for conviction, but with a shorter prison sentence.

On Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to take up the appeal filed by Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, seeking to overturn a state Court of Appeals ruling that ordered Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter A. Cahill, who is overseeing the trial, to reconsider a thirddegree murder charge in the case. The appellate court then issued a final ruling in the case and sent the issue back to Cahill, who heard arguments on it Thursday morning.

Cahill threw out the charge in the fall and declined to reinstate it last month, arguing the statute requires the fatal action to be “eminently dangerous to others.”

“The evidence presented by prosecutors so far has only shown that Chauvin’s actions were eminently dangerous to Floyd,” Cahill said in an October ruling.

Nelson pointed to Cahill’s past rulings and argued the case cited in the appellate court decision ordering the judge to reconsider the charge against

Chauvin was “factually different” from the circumstances around Floyd’s death.

In that case, former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor was convicted of thirddegree murder and manslaughter in the 2017 shooting death of a woman who had approached his squad car after making a 911 call about a possible sexual assault behind her home. The court of appeals last month rejected Noor’s effort have his conviction thrown out — a ruling that established third-degree murder as precedent and led prosecutors in the Chauvin case to reinstate the charge.