Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted for the murder of George Floyd, has filed court papers asking for a new trial.
According to a document submitted on Tuesday, the defence attorney for the former Minneapolis police officer launched a blistering attack on the judge, accusing him of mishandling the trial and violating the rights of his client.
Chauvin was convicted of killing Floyd on 20 April. Several videos of him kneeling on Floyd’s neck in May 2020 was widely circulated around the world and ultimately used in his trial.
On Tuesday, 4 May, his lawyers filed documents claiming Chauvin was deprived of a fair trial, that there had been “prosecutorial and jury misconduct” and “errors of law at trial”.
In the documents, Chauvin’s lawyer said the judge who presided over the trial abused his discretion when he was denied an earlier request for a new trial, which the lawyer says “threatened the fairness of the trial” and violated Chauvin’s right to a fair trial.
He also took issue with the judge’s refusal to sequester the jury for the trial or admonish them to avoid all media, and with his refusal to allow a man who was with Mr. Floyd at the time of his arrest to testify.
