The Minnesota Court docket of Appeals Monday upheld the conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the homicide of George Floyd throughout a 2020 arrest. In doing so, the court docket denied Chauvin’s request for a brand new trial or reversal of his conviction.
Within the choice, the court docket rendered holdings on twelve points and concluded that the Hennepin County District Court docket didn’t abuse its discretion in any of the methods Chauvin alleged. The court docket defined:
When a felony defendant strikes to alter venue, proceed trial, or sequester the jury alleging that publicity surrounding the trial created precise or presumed juror prejudice, a district court docket doesn’t abuse its discretion by denying the motions if it takes enough mitigating steps and verifies that the jurors can put aside their impressions or opinions and ship a good an neutral verdict.
In response to Chauvin’s argument that on-duty legislation enforcement officers are licensed to make use of drive when arresting resisting suspects and thus can’t be convicted of second-degree unintentional felony homicide, the court docket held that “a police officer could be convicted of second-degree unintentional felony homicide for inflicting the dying of one other through the use of unreasonable drive constituting third-degree assault to impact a lawful arrest.” It reasoned that, whereas the legislation permits law enforcement officials to make use of cheap quantities of drive, “Chauvin crossed that line when he used unreasonable drive on Floyd.”
Additional, the court docket concluded that Chauvin will not be entitled to a brand new trial, as a result of the alleged errors didn’t deny him a good trial. Finally, the court docket affirmed the district court docket’s conviction of Chauvin.
For the counts of unintentional second-degree felony murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in opposition to him, Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in jail. Chauvin was additionally sentenced to 21 years in jail for federal civil rights violations.
Monday’s choice comes simply weeks after Minneapolis agreed to revamp the town’s police division.
