After he was stabbed in prison, Derek Chauvin has been granted more time by a federal judge to put together his latest appeal to vacate his conviction in the death of George Floyd.
According to recent court filings, Chauvin sought an extension because he is “housed in solitary medical confinement with no access to his property or case materials needed to complete the briefing of his motion to vacate.”
The U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected Chauvin’s appeal on a state court’s murder conviction.
However, the former Minneapolis officer made another attempt to overturn his federal civil rights conviction in November. He asked for more time to get that case together.
“There are additional exhibits defendant seeks to submit, including but not limited to an expert letter from Dr. Thomas Dunne of Texas, and portions of ‘The Fall of Minneapolis’ by Liz Collin,” the handwritten letter reads.
It says that Chauvin “cannot do anything in his current incapacitated state.”
Chauvin was stabbed 22 times the day after Thanksgiving while he was working in the law library on his case inside a federal corrections facility in Tucson.
John Turscak, the suspect in the stabbing and a former FBI informant, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder.
Chauvin’s request for an extension was granted by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson, who ruled that the “Defendant’s reply in support of his motion to vacate shall be filed 30 days after Defendant has access to the materials.”
Chauvin filed a motion to vacate in November and stated that he never would have pleaded guilty to the federal charges if he was aware of a Kansas pathologist’s opinion that Floyd may have died from complications of a rare tumor called a paraganglioma.
The pathologist, Dr. William Schaetzel, says he told Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson, about the tumor, but Chauvin was not made aware of it.
Liz Collin
Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
