Game changer? Derek Chauvin's lawyers allowed to sample fluids from George Floyds autopsy | Law Enforcement Today

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - On Monday, December 16th, a federal judge granted a motion from Derek Chauvin's legal team to analyze heart tissue and fluid samples from Georg Floyd's autopsy.

According to FOX 9, Chauvin's legal team is looking to find out whether Floyd may have died from a heart condition. Chauvin, a former police officer for the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), is serving a prison sentence on a federal conviction for violating Floyd's civil rights.

Back in 2023, Chauvin's legal team filed a motion seeking to overturn the conviction, claiming in part that there is new evidence showing he did not cause Floyd's death. On December 13th, Chauvin's legal team filed a motion requesting to re-examine evidence, including fluid and heart samples, as part of a claim that Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck was not what killed him, but rather a heart condition.

Chauvin claims that he received "ineffective assistance of counsel," arguing in part that a forensic pathologist contacted his lawyer prior to his federal indictment, suggesting Floyd may have died from a heart condition. 

The pathologist suggested that the examination and testing of preserved samples taken during Floyd's autopsy would support that opinion. However, Chauvin claims his lawyer didn't discuss the pathologists' opinion with him or request further testing of the autopsy samples. The judge has granted the motion allowing Chauvin's legal team to analyze the samples and conduct specific tests.

The court document reads, "Given the significant nature of the criminal case that Mr. Chauvin was convicted of, and given that the discovery that Mr. Chauvin seeks could support Dr. Schaetzel's opinion of how Mr. Floyd died, the Court finds that there is good cause to allow Mr. Chauvin to take the discovery that he seeks. Accordingly, the Court grants Mr. Chauvin's motion."

The motion did not detail when the testing would occur or how long it would take to get results. Chauvin was sentenced to 20.5 years on federal charges for violating Floyd's civil rights, which is running concurrently with the 22.5 year he received in Hennepin County court ofr murder charges in Floyd's death.

According to the Associated Press (AP), Chauvin said he would not have pleaded guilty if he had known about the pathologist. However, federal prosecutors argued in court filings that Eric Nelson, Chauvin's original attorney, had a reasonable "tactical decision" not to explore an untested opinion "offered by someone holding himself out as an expert."

They pointed out that Nelson consulted with other medical experts in preparation for Chauvin's cases, including one who testified in state court, but that the jury in that case rejected Chauvin's medical defense. They also noted that the legal barriers to succeeding on a claim of ineffective counsel are very high. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Chauvin's appeal of his murder conviction.