The filing also claims that the absence of a grand jury “allowed prosecutors to substitute their judgment for that of a grand jury in order to force Mr. Chauvin to face charges that were unsupported by probable cause.” Grand juries are mandatory in criminal federal cases under the Sixth Amendment, but states have no such requirements. Many, however, including Minnesota, also mandate that grand juries be convened before a suspect is charged murder. True, prosecutors generally can get grand juries to “indict a ham sandwich.” Nonetheless, due process is due process. And a ham sandwich would have received a fairer trial than Chauvin did.
This is the third time Chauvin has tried to get the charges tossed out and his conviction undone. There is no denying that politics and “antiracism” virtue-signaling motivated every action against the Minneapolis police officer taken by prosecutors in the wake of the 2020 Minneapolis riots over Floyd’s death. After a trial that appeared to have more reversible error than the ridiculous one at the climax of “The Untouchables” (Juries switched between trials after the evidence has been presented; a guilty verdict entered by the defendant’s attorney without the defendant’s (Al Capone!) consent and accepted by the judge), a prison inmate stabbed Chauvin 22 times in the prison law library. Chauvin’s wife divorced him after his conviction.
Victoria Taft of PJ Media compiled an impressive but still incomplete list of what was wrong with the trial itself without even getting to the evidence. That alone warranted either a directed jury verdict of “Not Guilty” by the judge or a reversal of the jury’s guilty verdict as unsupportable as a matter of law on grounds of reasonable doubt even as to the cause of Floyd’s death:
- The venue should have been changed. Chauvin couldn’t get a fair trial in the Twin Cities.
- There was great pressure on the jury to convict with the threat of resumed rioting.
- One juror lied in voir dire.
- The pretrial publicity fatally biased the the jury.
- Defense witnesses were intimidated.
- Repeated rosecutorial misconduct
- Floyd’s drug dealer was prevented from testifying.
- The judge’s jury instructions were atrocious.
- The judge allowed excessive emotional displays on the stand by prosecution witnesses designed to “inflame the jury.”
- The jury should have been sequestered. I still am amazed that they were not. Public figures called for Chauvin’s conviction during the trial.
- The state prosecution team had over 20 lawyers while Chauvin had one.
- The prosecution overcharged as a matter of law.
When I first posted on the rigged conviction of Chauvin in 2023, I led off with the climactic song from the musical “1776” in which John Adams sings in anger and frustration, “Is anybody there? Does anybody care?” In November of last year, following an earlier attempt by Chuavin to get this blight on our justice system’s record erased, however belatedly, I wrote pessimistically in conclusion,
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.”
Well I guess I’m a little bit more sanguine today, just a little. The Supreme Court gives me hope if the case finally gets there, it will have the guts to do the right thing with Justice Jackson dissenting, of course. Maybe the flaming excesses of the “antiracism” movement, the DEI fiascos, the further emergence of the totalitarian Left, the undeniable contempt for due process and fair trials in the lawfare pursuit of Donald Trump by corrupt Democratic prosecutors, and the recent anti-law enforcement conduct of Minnesota officials in respect to I.C.E. and Somali scamsters has removed the public’s blinders sufficiently to make justice for Designated Scapegoat Derek Chauvin—finally—a reality.
Maybe this time. Maybe this time.
Ethics Alarms 
The medical consensus is not split. The argument that drugs or panic alone killed Floyd exists almost entirely in political media and opinion commentary, rather than in peer-reviewed medical journals or forensic pathology standards. Pathologists, pulmonologists, and toxicologists agree: the physical restraint and compression applied by the officers caused severe hypoxia and cardiac arrest, making it the definitive primary cause of death.
Dr. Tobin (from whom I have two degrees of professional separation) demonstrated that the physiological restriction was so severe that even a healthy individual without pre-existing heart disease or drugs in their system would have died under identical physical conditions.
Moreover,
Presentation of Fentanyl Overdose: Opioid toxicity depresses the central nervous system, leading to heavy sedation, slow and shallow breathing (hypoventilation), and eventually coma or unresponsiveness.
Observed Behavior: Floyd was conscious, speaking, gasping, and actively attempting to breathe until oxygen deprivation caused him to lose consciousness.
Tolerance: Chronic opioid users regularly survive fentanyl blood concentrations far higher than 11 ng/mL without fatal effects.
Carbon Dioxide Levels: Blood gas analysis taken during resuscitation attempts showed acute oxygen collapse rather than the gradual carbon dioxide buildup typical of an opioid overdose.
There may be legal inadequacies in the prosecution that shouldn’t have happened and perhaps that should be corrected retroactively. But the medical science is a separate issue, one that requires those two pesky brothers: unbiased facts and careful analysis.
Floyd’s death was attributed to multiple causes, meaning that if he hadn’t been sick and full of drugs, he might not have died. He also tested positive for the Wuhan virus, which means, by the criteria used at the time to scare the public, George’s death would have been included in the Death by Covid stats. It’s a wonder the New York Times didn’t include the thug in the “Those We Have Lost” feature. The coroner opined that Chauvin’s actions were likely the primary cause of death, but the ‘eggshell skull” principle (“You take your victim as you find him”) applies in civil law, not criminal. The Coronor also attributed Floyd death in part to the flooding of his system with adrenaline because he was resisting arrest. That was his fault, not Chauvin’s. Verdict: obvious reasonable doubt.
Also, the medical verdict was homicide, meaning that Chauvin’s actions killed Floyd as the main causation.
Jack, the legal standard for causation in homicide cases in Minnesota is that the prosecution must show the defendant’s actions were a substantial contributing cause. Not the only cause, not the proximate cause, not the primary cause. You may not agree with that standard, but it is the law in Minnesota.
Again, that’s manslaughter, not first degree murder. Homicide means the death was caused by a person. Under Minnesota Statute § 609.185, first-degree murder is defined as causing the death of a person with premeditation and intent, or during the commission of specific high-risk felonies like sexual assault, kidnapping, or terrorism. It carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. Furthermore, a law enforcement officer has considerable leeway in resisting arrest situations, which this was. If Chauvin using an approved police tactic to subdue a huge perp and the perp died due to that move plus other factors, it still isn’t criminal homicide, and definitely isn’t first degree murder. Right???????
Yeah, I don’t buy the First Degree Murder part, which basically requires you believe Chauvin intended to kill Floyd by holding him prone while waiting for the ambulance, the kind of moustache-twirling villainous plot you see only in bad novels, children’s cartoons, and social-justice activism.
But as I’ve already pointed out, as can be seen in the jury instructions, the presence of other contributing factors doesn’t enter into it. If the prone restraint significantly contributed to death, and its use was unlawful, then it’s some form of homicide, mostly depending on intent and circumstances.
Let me get this back on track—my fault. There was no First Degree Murder charge or conviction. I’m so disgusted by the whole George Floyd fiasco that I didn’t go back and check the facts. Chauvin was convicted of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder (which is manslaughter), and second-degree manslaughter and convicted on all of the charges, which makes no sense, resulting in a 22+1⁄2 sentence. Second degree murder either requires an intentional killing or an unintentional killing committed during the course of a felony. What felony? Chauvin was trying to arrest a big, drugged out per resisting arrest. There’s no way that conviction and prosecution can be spun to justify Chauvin’s conviction.
But he wasn’t charged with First Degree murder.
It’s clear you’ve not seen the entire arrest video. Three officers were actively struggling to get him restrained for several minutes. One circles around the car and decides to pull Floyd in from the opposite door, rather than three pushing from the side. Floyd barrels though the back seat steamrolling over the pulling officer and is back out of the vehicle.
This was drug induced delirious panic suicide by cop.
Maybe! We can only hope that common sense and actual law (which seems rare in MN) prevails.
And now we all know who Knucklehead is.
What do you want to bet that Trump doesn’t pardon the federal conviction when leaving office?
Federal prison is a far better place than state prison. It would be a net harm to Chauvin to get a pardon.
“Maybe This Time”
The tag line for Jurassic Park 13…