Judge allows testing of George Floyd's tissue samples as officer seeks new trial over human rights conviction

A judge has given Derek Chauvin's lawyers permission to test George Floyd's tissue samples. It's part of the Minneapolis police officer's efforts to challenge his conviction for violating Floyd's civil rights after he was convicted of killing Floyd in 2020.

US District Judge Paul Magnuson issued the order on Monday, allowing the suspects to examine Floyd's heart tissue and fluid samples. This will be done to test the theory that Floyd died of a heart attack aggravated by a rare tumor, and not – as the prosecutors argued – from asphyxiation caused by a white police officer pressing his knee on the black man's neck for nine and a half times. minutes in May 2020.

Chauvin's lawyer when he tried to file an appeal, Robert Meyers, said that Chauvin's lawyer, Eric Nelson, failed to inform his client that an outside doctor who was not directly involved in the case, Dr. William Schaetzel, contact Nelson before Chauvin re-applies. offered the unsolicited theory that Chauvin did not cause Floyd's death.

Chauvin says that amounted to “bad counsel” and is demanding a new trial, saying he would not have pleaded guilty if he had known about the doctors.

But federal prosecutors argued in court that Nelson made a “wise decision” not to examine an untested opinion “provided by someone who calls himself an expert.”

The High Court rejected the appeal for conviction of murder

They point out that Nelson consulted with other medical experts in preparation for Chauvin's case, including one who testified in state court, but that the judge in the case rejected Chauvin's medical defense. Federal prosecutors also noted that the legal hurdles to succeeding in a failed attorney's claim are very high.

Nelson declined to comment Tuesday.

Chauvin was convicted in federal court of the murders in 2021 and later pleaded guilty to violating Floyd's rights. He is currently serving his 20-year civil rights and 22-and-a-half-year murder sentences concurrently in a state prison in Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Chauvin's appeal of a first-degree murder conviction last year.

Floyd's death and his cry of “I can't breathe” sparked protests around the world—some of which turned violent—and forced the spotlight on police brutality and racism.