Published May 5, 2021 7:34am Derek Chauvin, the white ex-policeman convicted of murdering the African-American man George Floyd, asked Tuesday for a new trial on claims of jury and prosecution misconduct. The 45-year-old who knelt on Floyd s neck for more than nine minutes faces up to 40 years in prison after being found guilty last month in a case that prompted a national reckoning on racial injustice and police brutality. Chauvin s attorney Eric Nelson argued that his client did not get a fair trial due to publicity around the case, court and prosecution errors, as well as race-based pressure on the jury. The publicity here was so pervasive and so prejudicial before and during this trial that it amounted to a structural defect in the proceedings, Nelson wrote.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin asked a judge on Tuesday for a new trial, court records showed, two weeks after he was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd.
In a series of motions filed to District Court Judge Peter Cahill, attorney 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 the law. Prosecutors did not immediately file a response to the motions for a new trial.
On April 20, a 12-member jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty on all three counts he faced after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, including bystanders, police officials and medical experts. The charges were second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
2021-05-05 02:00:24 GMT2021-05-05 10:00:24(Beijing Time) Sina English
AFP
In this file screenshot obtained from video feed via Court TV, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin listens to the verdict in his trial in the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 20, 2021.
Derek Chauvin, the white ex-policeman convicted of murdering the African-American man George Floyd, asked on Tuesday for a new trial on claims of jury and prosecution misconduct.
The 45-year-old who knelt on Floyd s neck for more than nine minutes faces up to 40 years in prison after being found guilty last month in a case that prompted a national reckoning on racial injustice and police brutality.
Editorial Roundup: Minnesota
Minneapolis Star Tribune. May 3, 2021.
Editorial: Criminal justice fees in Minnesota pose an unfair burden
A just system needs proportionality, and the state places too large a burden on poorest residents.
Fines, fees and mandatory surcharges can turn even a minor parking or traffic ticket into a costly affair that can quickly spiral out of control.
A story in Sunday’s Star Tribune by Jessie Van Berkel details how a $30 ticket for expired license tabs can quickly mushroom to $130, thanks to a hefty “state surcharge” that eclipses the cost of the ticket itself, along with a $15 fee charged in some areas to support law libraries. And that is if the fines are paid on time. Delay adds late fees.
Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer found guilty last month of murdering George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, has asked for a new trial, citing what his lawyers call “pervasive” misconduct in how the state prosecuted its case. On 20 April, Chauvin’s widely watched trial came to an end and he was found guilty of multiple charges of murder as well as manslaughter, after being caught on video kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck for.