MINNEAPOLIS — Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, found guilty of murdering George Floyd in May 2020, filed an intent to appeal his conviction and sentence Thursday with the state appellate court.
Chauvin proposed 14 issues in his appeal and claimed Judge Peter Cahill abused his discretion when he denied Chauvin’s request to move the trial out of Hennepin County due to pretrial publicity. He also cited issues with how the court handled the motion for a continuance and motions to sequester the jury, along with issues around the trial itself including the addition of the third-degree murder charge and the court's failure to make an official record of the numerous sidebars throughout the trial.
Chauvin was convicted earlier this year on state charges of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree murder and third-degree murder in Floyd's death. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison and is currently being held in Minnesota's only maximum security prison, Oak Park Heights.
Chauvin and the three other ex-Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd's death are all currently charged with federal civil rights offenses.
On Sept. 14, Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng appeared before a federal judge and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The federal indictment alleges Chauvin, who was an officer with the Minneapolis police at the time, violated Floyd's right to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force by police.
Thao and Kueng are charged with violating Floyd's right to be free from reasonable seizure and for not intervening or stopping Chauvin when he knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.
All four of the former officers are charged for their failure to provide medical care for George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
Thao, Kueng and Lane still face state charges of aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter for their alleged involvement in Floyd's murder. Their trial is set for March 2022.