Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin is arguing that new evidence proves he did not cause the 2020 death of George Floyd as part of an attempt to overturn his federal civil rights conviction.
Chauvin said he would never have pleaded guilty to the 2021 charge if he was aware of the theories from a Kansas pathologist with whom he began corresponding earlier this year, according to a motion filed in federal court this week, The Associated Press reported.
Chauvin is requesting the judge who oversaw his trial to toss his conviction and order a new trial or an evidentiary hearing at the very least.
Chauvin was sentenced in July 2022 to more than two decades in prison for violating Floyd's federal civil rights when the then-officer arrested Floyd and pinned him to the ground for more than 9 minutes as he died. Floyd's death sparked mass Black Lives Matter protests and riots across the United States during the summer of 2020.