Chauvin’s Attorney Has Filed A Motion For A New Trial

The Epoch Times had more details: 

The defense attorney for former police officer Derek Chauvin filed a motion for a new trial on Tuesday.

Attorney Eric Nelson filed the request to a Minnesota court arguing that a new trial should be granted in the interest of justice and because an abuse of discretion had deprived Chauvin of a fair trial. He also contends that Chauvin’s conviction was tainted by prosecutorial and jury misconduct, errors of law at trial, and that the verdict was contrary to law.

Chauvin was convicted last month in the 2020 death of George Floyd, who stopped breathing while being pinned to the ground by Chauvin following an arrest. Floyd was suspected of using counterfeit money in a Minneapolis store. A jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

In support of his request, Nelson alleged a number of issues that he said would have affected the outcome of Chauvin’s trial including the refusal to move the trial over concerns of a tainted jury pool or failing to sequester the jury. He also argued that Judge Peter Cahill abused his discretion when he rejected a separate motion for a new trial over concerns that the publicity during the case could have affected the jurors’ judgment.

Fox News wrote: 

"The Court abused its discretion and violated Mr. Chauvin’s rights under the Confrontation Clause when it failed to order Morries Hall to testify, or in the alternative, to admit into evidence Mr. Hall’s statements to law enforcement regarding his interactions with George Floyd and presence at the May 25, 2020 incident."  

Hall invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying, but he had made statements to police that were not revealed to jurors, despite Nelson’s attempts to have them read in court.  

In addition to requesting a new trial, Nelson also asked for the guilty verdicts against Chauvin to be tossed.

Two notable potential areas of conflict were left out of the filing – controversial remarks from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and a juror who was photographed at a Black Lives Matter protest but failed to acknowledge it on the pretrial questionnaire given to potential jury members.