George Floyd will not be allowed to rest in peace as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is still trying to shirk accountability for causing Floyd’s death. Chauvin is currently serving concurrently sentences of 21 years and 22 1/2 years for federal civil rights violations and second-degree murder respectively. According to reporting by CBSNews, Chauvin filed a legal motion that he hopes will help vacate his federal sentence.
On December 16, 2024 a judge ruled that Chauvin will be allowed access to preserved parts of George Floyd’s heart to test the theory of a Kansas pathologist named Dr. William Schaetzel who believes that Chauvin was not responsible for Floyd’s death.
Schaetzel suggests Floyd died due to a high level of catecholamines — a neurohormone important in stress response, associated with the flight-or-fight response — or Takotsubo myocarditis, a heart condition that develops in response to an intense emotional or physical experience.
The ruling allows Chauvin’s legal team to have Floyd’s bodily fluids, heart tissue, tissue blocks, slides, and photographs for examination to make their case.
The motion filed also accuses Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s former lawyer, of not providing competent legal counsel as he never informed Chauvin of Dr. Schaetzel’s theory about Floyd’s cause of death. Let Chauvin tell it, he never would have plead guilty if he knew about the doctor’s belief.
These people have posited every theory in the world to explain why applying a chokehold for almost nine minutes isn’t really fatal. They better not let this POS wiggle out of his conviction.