MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday rejected former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's appeal for a new trial outside Hennepin County.
The decision comes nearly three years since George Floyd's murder in May 2020, when Chauvin knelt on the Black man's neck for more than nine minutes. Chauvin's appellate attorney William Mohrman argued that pretrial publicity — the global unrest, media coverage and calls for police reform — made a fair trial impossible.
But a three-judge panel issued a unanimous 50-page decision stating that Chauvin failed to show prejudice among jurors or in the publicity surrounding his trial. Presiding Judge Peter Reyes wrote the decision considered by him and judges Elise Larson and Roger Klaphake.
