When I posted on the shameful conviction of Officer Derek Chauvin in 2023 after trail that was biased from the start to its finsih, I led off with that climactic song from the musical “1776.” It seemed to me then that nobody did care, at least, not enough people in our corrupted and politicized justice system. I wrote in part,

“That the conviction of Derek Chauvin for murder was a frightening political act that trampled multiple constitutional rights of a single hated ex-cop (and later his three fellow police officers at the scene) has been increasingly undeniable. The justice system, the news media, the political system and the nation as a whole have apparently decided that Chauvin isn’t worth the effort to provide him with the basic rights and fair treatment that has been accorded to scores of murderers and thieves, and that is supposed to be the birthright of every citizen regardless of class, color or character.

“The U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision that I have to believe was dictated by public relations rather than law or justice, recently turned down Chauvin’s last ditch appeal, based on his claim that he was denied his right to a fair trial because of pretrial publicity and public safety concerns in the event of an acquittal. Of course he was. Public figures had declared him guilty during the trial. A mass outbreak of race-based rioting (and “mostly peaceful” demonstrations) across the country had been triggered by Floyd’s death, though no evidence was ever offered at trial that Chauvin was motivated by racism. The specter of the Rodney King riots that erupted in L.A. after the police accused in his beating were acquitted had to loom large in the jury’s minds, as well as the likelihood of potential alienation from their friends, families and colleagues if they allowed an arch villain, in the already clear verdict of the media and the mob, to escape mob justice….He is a convenient sacrifice to racial guilt among whites and aspiring political power among blacks. Facts are irrelevant.”

It was and is a horrifying failure of our justice system, and a horrifying example of how political violence can succeed. Now a new filing in the case raises hope again that Chauvin, who has been nearly murdered in prison, may yet be exonerated. If, as the document and its supporting documentation claims, the prosecution withheld important evidence from the defense and the jury, then Chauvin was denied due process even beyond the due process we saw him be denied in his first trial. That would mandate throwing out the verdict and giving him a new trial, one would hope in a jurisdiction not as incapable of sanity as Minneapolis.

Here is a summary:

None of this surprises me. The circumstances under which Chauvin was convicted resembled the lynching parties small towns would organize to execute an accused man whose alleged acts had inflamed the populace without waiting for a trial. Black Lives Matter and other powerful cultural and political forces on the Left saw an opportunity to set the nation cowering and submissive, and took it; Chauvin and the other police officers involved in the arrest of George Floyd, as well as police departments across the country, were collateral damage.

I hate to conclude this, but I believe that the public and its institutions would have preferred that attack on Chauvin in prison (he was stabbed 22 times) had succeeded. Even if there is slam-dunk proof that his trial was rigged and his conviction was unjust, reversing the verdict is likely to be seen as throwing gasoline on still-burning embers. Nobody, including President Trump, is likely to have the stomach for it. It will be brutal utilitarianism at work: freeing this innocent man just isn’t worth the likely consequences—riots, destruction, deaths and more condemnations of the nation as racist. The trade off will be an unsteady peace in exchange for the ruin of an innocent man, the trampling of his rights, and the surrender of the justice system’s integrity for “the greater good.”

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