5/4/21
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted last month of killing George Floyd, filed a request Tuesday asking for a new trial. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, alleged that juror misconduct and pretrial publicity in part led to Chauvin’s conviction for second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death last year. Chauvin’s legal team specifically cited the court’s rejection of its request to change the hearing’s venue outside Minneapolis. Nelson wrote in the filing that “the Court abused its discretion when it denied Defendant’s motion for a change of venue” and that publicity around the high-profile hearing escalated “the potential for prejudice in these proceedings.” “The publicity here was so pervasive and so prejudicial before and during this trial that it amounted to a structural defect in the proceedings,” he wrote. Nelson also tore into the court over its rules surrounding the jury, which he said were not strict enough and allowed jurors to digest outside media coverage of the trial. “The Court abused its discretion when it failed to sequester the jury for the duration of the trial, or in the least, admonish them to avoid all media, which resulted in jury exposure to prejudicial publicity regarding the trial during the proceedings, as well as jury intimidation and potential fear of retribution among jurors, which violated Mr. Chauvin’s constitutional rights to due process and to a fair trial,” Nelson claimed.
thehill.com
