Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer convicted in 2020 of the murder of African-American man George Floyd, has opted to appeal his conviction.
After kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes in March 2020, Chauvin was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison.
His killing triggered widespread protests in the United States and across the world against racism and police brutality.
He was convicted guilty of second-degree murder and other counts and was prohibited from having guns for the rest of his life, as well as being ordered to register as a predatory offender.
Derek Chauvin, a white male, claims that the jury in the trial was biased against him and that the trial should not have taken place in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Chauvin claims that the trial judge misused his authority at many crucial stages in the case, including refusing a request to postpone or move the hearing from Minneapolis due to pre-trial publicity, according to court filings filed on Thursday, September 23.
Chauvin also stated that he did not have a lawyer for his appeal since the Minnesota police department’s “responsibility to pay for my representation ceased at my conviction and punishment,” according to Chauvin.
Chauvin then petitioned the United States Supreme Court to reconsider an earlier judgment denying him access to a publicly funded lawyer.
Chauvin, 45, was given 90 days to appeal his conviction from the date of his sentencing on June 25.