Back in the spring of 2020, Minneapolis became ground zero for a national firestorm. George Floyd, a 46-year-old man with a troubled past, ended up dead during an arrest gone wrong—or so the story went. The ex-cop at the center of it all, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Floyd’s back for over nine minutes as bystanders filmed and shouted. What followed wasn’t just a trial, but a spectacle that tore through the city, sparked riots across the country, and left businesses in ashes. Five years on, Chauvin sits in a federal prison in Texas, serving time on state and federal charges. But now, he’s fighting back with a new petition that could crack open the whole narrative.
Filed last month in Hennepin County District Court, the 71-page document from Chauvin’s lawyer, Gregory Joseph, demands his second-degree murder conviction be thrown out. It calls for a new trial or, at minimum, a hearing to dig into the evidence again.
“While the postconviction relief stage of many criminal cases is generally something of an afterthought, this Court is removed from the hysteria of the day and can finally look at the facts and evidence through a clear lens,” Joseph wrote.
The core of the argument? Flawed expert testimony on how Floyd actually died. The Hennepin County medical examiner, Dr. Andrew Baker, ruled it a homicide despite heart disease, fentanyl, and methamphetamine in Floyd’s system—and no clear signs of asphyxiation from the restraint. Yet four prosecution doctors leaned hard on bystander video to push a different story: that Chauvin’s knee caused low oxygen levels leading straight to death. Chauvin’s team says that’s junk science, cooked up to fit the moment. They point to autopsy records ignored by prosecutors, records that paint a picture of a man already in cardiac arrest before things escalated.
Add to that the police training angle. Three Minneapolis officers took the stand and swore Chauvin’s knee-on-neck hold broke department rules. But since then, at least 34 current and former cops have come forward with sworn statements saying the department taught exactly that technique for certain situations.
The petition ties this directly to the 2022 book *They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and the Death of George Floyd* by journalist Liz Collin and Dr. J.C. Chaix, which first aired those claims. It’s the kind of detail that makes you wonder: Were witnesses coached, or just scared of the mob outside the courthouse?
Jury instructions come under fire too. Chauvin’s lawyers argue Judge Peter Cahill botched them, feeding the panel a version of the law that boxed them into guilt. All this, they say, stripped Chauvin of due process under the 14th Amendment. It’s not the first swing—Chauvin lost appeals in 2023, including one shot down by the Supreme Court. His federal civil rights plea deal sticks, landing him 21 years concurrent with the 22.5-year state sentence. Release? Not till 2037 or 2038, depending on good behavior. He even survived a brutal stabbing in Arizona’s federal lockup back in 2023, stabbed 22 times by another inmate.
The case reeks of a rush to judgment, fueled by streets on fire and a media blitz that turned Floyd into a symbol overnight. Riots cost billions, lives were lost in the chaos, and cops nationwide pulled back, letting crime spike in the years after.
Floyd’s toxicology report showed fentanyl levels that could fell an elephant—3.0 nanograms per milliliter in his blood, per the autopsy—right alongside meth. Baker himself noted in testimony that those drugs and Floyd’s enlarged heart were “major” factors. Yet the trial zeroed in on that video clip, looped endlessly, as if nine minutes of restraint erased everything else.
Whispers persist that the fix was in from the start. Why else would top brass flip on their own training manual? Or why did Baker hedge on asphyxia until the pressure mounted? The Fall of Minneapolis, Collin’s documentary, lays it out cold: suppressed bodycam footage, overlooked evidence of Floyd’s resistance, and a narrative steamrolled by activists. It’s easy to see a setup—sacrifice one cop to douse the flames, damn the facts. If even half of Chauvin’s claims hold water, it wasn’t murder; it was a man with a badge doing his job in a split-second call, amid a suspect high as a kite and fighting back.
The Minnesota AG’s office has until January to respond. No ruling yet from the court, but the stakes couldn’t be higher. A new trial wouldn’t just free Chauvin; it’d force a reckoning on how far the justice system bent to appease the crowd. Families still grieve, communities still heal unevenly, but truth doesn’t bend to timelines or torches. If Chauvin gets his day in court away from the frenzy, maybe we’ll finally get answers that stick. Until then, the doubts hang heavy, a reminder that justice rushed is justice half-done.
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Chauvin trial has appeared to have been rigged. The Judge decided what evidence to allow or disallow beforehand. Colorado Courts did the same dishonest rigging with Trump trying to infringe on half of Colorado voters and remove Trump from the ballot. And what about the Judge in the Tina Peter’s trial. He decided beforehand what evidence he would allow. Can a citizen receive a fair trial when the Courts disallow exploratory evidence? Did the Secretary of State then break the law and commit the same dishonest behavior that they sentenced Tina Peter’s to prison for? Hmmm! 🤔 Respectfully.
In a world where there is a two-tiered justice system, we the common folk will never get a fair trial. Unless we can pay for it or it fits a narrative, and even then, it seems rigged. Example, the OJ trial. Makes for great TV ratings though. There is only one judgement we really need be concerned about, eyes on the eternal prize.
1000% Yes. Rigged to take down an innocent man and venerate the DRUG ADDICT.
Appears to have been rigged? Nope. It WAS RIGGED. Floyd was a stoned drug dealer that had just beat the hell out if a Pakistani corner store clerk. He assaulted the police and died from a heart attack while struggling. Those are facts. Chauvin is another victim of leftist hysteria. Oh, and Blue Crow is my actual Shoshone name.
Oops??? 🤔 EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE !
Trump needs to revisit this travesty of a “trial.” Chauvin was railroaded because of his occupation and race. This situation cannot stand.
We’re seeing now how corrupt MN is with catering to the Somali community.
Unless I missed that day in medical school, the windpipe is on the front of the neck, not the side – and unless I missed another day, when you are able to say, “I can’t breathe,” you can breathe. However, when you put a fat man on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind him – a man who is already complaining of air hunger, probably because of an overdose of fentanyl, you are not helping him. Of course, the cops had no way of knowing this and were just trying to subdue a perp.
Clearly Chauvin was railroaded; that’s intuitively obvious to the casual observer, and the worst of it is that he was railroaded because of the fear sof feckless politicians who were not up to the task of leading when it really counted. I hope Chauvin walks, and since his career is over, I hope he is compensated with full pension and benefits, though it still won’t be nearly enough.
Watch The Fall Of Minneapolis. It will tell you everything you need to recommend a new trial.
Kangaroo court from the start. Chauvin was railroaded. Problem is thew AG is that scumbag Ellison. I wish him luck but he will need federal intervention.
Chauvin is in jail because he was a punk. That’s the reason. He was a punk who enjoyed displaying his abject arrogance.
Hahaha, you sound like one of those hook line and sinker progressives. If you don’t want to experience abject arrogance don’t put yourself in a bad situation that will allow it. DC followed training and protocol. Go cry at the GF memorial site.
Chauvin is a victim of leftist hysteria and vigilante justice. I’m Native American and we are VERY familiar with you whites trash and your Buffalo Soldier’s idea of justice. You bast*rds committed the American Holocaust, murdering over 30 million of us and stealing our land. Innotuce that the moderators of this woke rag hold back every post I make. Free dumb of speech.
Chauvin is innocent, and the autopsy proves it. Not only should he be released, he should be compensated for unlawful imprisonment. He was a scapegoat from the beginning. Close up photos of his posture upon the suspect showed his knee was never on his neck, it just appeared that way.
Liberal Marxist politicians threw an innocent man, Derek Chauvin, under the bus in order to pander to criminal black organizations like Black Lives Matter. The American justice system in now worth less than a pile of manure. We see it everyday with the Dems lawfare and their criminal rogue judges.
Oh…so here we are with a poster-child case that somehow exhibits the flaws of our justice system…
Conveniently filled with “startling revelations”…
On BOTH sides…
And timed conveniently to the gain of BOTH the Democrats and NOW the Republicans…
Gee…
How many other cases out there might bare these same “discrepancies” and not get their “due process”? And maybe the alleged crimes, criminals, or victims have already been swept away/died off/or medically murdered?
What if one of those cases still existed…how does the system try to bury THAT one?
…Covid-26 anyone? Vegas shooting anyone?
God Speed to him. He was railroaded in a kangaroo court.
President Trump needs to do the right thing, and exonerate him. so He can sue the shit out of the city and state.
Chauvin should have an unbiased (read NOT rigged) trial this time, and be judged by a jury of his peers, preferably in another jurisdiction. Hopefully, the truth will finally come out, rather than the heretofore reinforcement of the Political Narrative.
I really think we ought to change the last sentence of our Pledge of Allegiance to “…with Liberty and Justice for some.”
Because “ALL” is clearly a hyperbole. Many victims do not get Justice and many innocents are unjustly convicted.
The OJ Simpson and Derek Chauvin trials are two quintessential examples.
Trump said on national tv that Chauvin murdered Floyd. As the top law inforcement officer in the country he should have known that Chauvin was innocent until proven guilty. For that reason alone he should have kept his mouth zippered.