Derek Chauvin is taking another crack at having his conviction for the murder of George Floyd overturned.
The former Minneapolis Police officer serving a 21-year sentence for killing George Floyd says in at Minnesota court filing he would never have pleaded guilty to the charges two years ago if he had known about the theories of a Kansas pathologist who he started corresponding with earlier this year.
Chauvin says Dr. William Schaetzel told him that he believes Floyd did not die from asphyxia, but rather from complications from a rare tumor called a paraganglioma . The pathologist did not examine Floyd's body but reviewed autopsy reports.
Chauvin is asking the judge who presided over his trial to throw out his conviction and order a new trial, or at least an evidentiary hearing.
Floyd died on May 25, 2020 after Chauvin kneeled on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes on the street. A bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.”
Chauvin is serving a 21-year sentence at a federal prison in Arizona. He filed the request without a lawyer.
“I can’t go to my grave with what I know,” Schaetzel told The Associated Press by phone on Monday, explaining why he reached out to Chauvin. “I just want the truth.”
Chauvin further alleges that Schaetzel reached out to his trial attorney, Eric Nelson, in 2021, as well as the judge and prosecution in his state-court murder trial, but that Nelson never told him about the pathologist or his ideas. He also alleges that Nelson failed to challenge the constitutionality of the federal charge.
But Chauvin claims in his motion that no jury would have convicted him if it had heard the pathologist’s evidence
When Chauvin pleaded guilty to the federal charge in December 2021, he waived his rights to appeal except on the basis of a claim of ineffective counsel.
A federal appeals court has rejected Chauvin’s requests for a rehearing twice. He’s still waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it will hear his appeal of his state court murder conviction.
Three other former officers who were at the scene received lesser state and federal sentences for their roles in Floyd’s death.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.