Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin plans to take his conviction for second-degree murder in the killing of George Floyd to the US Supreme Court after the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to hear the case, according to his attorney. The state’s highest court rejected Chauvin’s petition without comment, leaving his conviction and sentence unchanged. However, Chauvin faces slim odds at the US Supreme Court, which only reviews a small fraction of the appeals it receives each year.
Chauvin’s attorney, William Mohrmann, expressed disappointment in the state court’s decision. He highlighted the issue of holding the trial in Minneapolis in 2021, arguing that it deprived Chauvin of a fair trial due to the extensive pretrial publicity and concerns of violence if he were acquitted. Mohrmann pointed out the heightened security measures, such as barbed wire and National Guard troops, surrounding the courthouse during the trial and the deployment of the National Guard throughout Minneapolis before the jury deliberations, as evidence of safety concerns for the jurors.
In May, Mohrmann requested the Minnesota Supreme Court to review the case after the Minnesota Court of Appeals rejected his arguments regarding a fair trial. The Minnesota attorney general’s office responded last month, urging the Supreme Court to uphold the appeals court’s ruling. Attorney General Keith Ellison stated that the denial of review by the state Supreme Court confirms that the appeals court had correctly conducted the trial and Chauvin was rightfully convicted under the law. Ellison sees this development as Chauvin being held accountable for the murder of George Floyd, marking the closure of this chapter.
Overall, Chauvin’s chances of getting his conviction overturned by the US Supreme Court are remote given the selective nature of the court’s review process.
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