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The former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of the 2020 murder of George Floyd is reportedly seeking to appeal the conviction and sentence.
Derek Chauvin filed documents in court on Thursday (September 23) detailing his plans to appeal his conviction and sentence, accusing the judge in the case, Peter Cahill, of making a mistake or abusing his discretion. According to The Associated Press, Chauvin named 14 grounds on which he's planning to make his appeal, including saying Cahill abused discretion when the murder trial was moved out of Hennepin County due to pretrial publicity.
In April, Cahill sentenced Chauvin to 22 and half years in prison–– 10 years longer than the 12 and half years listed in the state sentencing guidelines for the charges against the former officer. Cahill agreed with prosecutors on several aggravating factors of the crime to support the longer sentence.
Chauvin had a 90-day deadline after his sentencing to file the paperwork. He also filed a motion to halt the appeals process until the Supreme Court reviews an earlier decision that denied him a public defender in the appeals process.
Chauvin's defense team was funded by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association's legal defense fund and now the former cop says he has no income to retain an attorney.
In addition to the state murder conviction, Chauvin and the three other officers who participated in the deadly arrest of Floyd last May, are all facing federal charges for violating Floyd's civil rights.
Chauvin recently pleaded not guilty to charges related to a 2017 arrest of a Black teenager whose neck he knelt on for 17 minutes.
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