One of the murder convictions against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is likely to be thrown out after a decision last week by the Minnesota Supreme Court. This from westernjournal.com.
Chauvin was found guilty of killing alleged counterfeiter George Floyd in 2020, an incident that spawned massive violent protests in Minneapolis and nationwide. Chauvin’s conviction came against a backdrop of activists saying they planned to riot if Chauvin were acquitted.
According to KMSP-TV, Minnesota has defined third-degree murder as killing a victim without intent while acting in a dangerous way to other people while showing “a depraved mind.”
The Minnesota high court’s ruling said that the element of a depraved mind is not applicable if the person being charged was only focused on one victim, KMSP reported.
The ruling came in the case of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, who was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder in the 2017 shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.
However, the ruling is likely to set a precedent that could be applied to the Chauvin case.
“It’s crystal clear now that Derek Chauvin cannot be convicted of murder three,” said Joseph Daly, emeritus professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Susan Gaertner, former county attorney in Ramsey County, Minnesota, told the Star Tribune she expects Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, to try to use the argument that having the charge against him hurt Chauvin’s chances during his trial.
However, she did not give it a very good chance of winning.
“By having that charge, it so confused the jurors it violated his due process rights,” Daly said an argument could claim. “I think that’s a valid argument. Whether the court will [buy] it, I doubt it, because [jurors] did find him guilty of the higher crime.”
University of St. Thomas law professor Rachel Moran said the ruling clarifies state law, according to KARE-TV.
“The Supreme Court has to address legal issues that apply to a variety of cases, not just one, and sometimes, really their decision wasn’t so much about when should Mr. Noor get out of prison as it was, how should this third-degree murder statute be defined in anybody’s case?” Moran said.
“It contains outdated language that frankly is not very well written, and the court actually said if you want to focus on rewriting the statute that’s a task for the legislature,” Moran said.
“In a practical way, it does not affect Mr. Chauvin at all,” Moran said. “He will probably get his third-degree murder conviction vacated, just like Mr. Noor did, because his conduct was also recklessly indifferent as to one person: George Floyd.”
Chauvin was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison on the second-degree murder charge. The sentence was based on the second-degree murder charge only, according to the Star Tribune.
Unless Chauvin’s attorney can successfully argue that the third-degree charge hurt his chances at trial, it is unlikely his sentence on that second-degree murder charge would be affected even if the third-degree murder conviction were overturned.
Caitlinrose Fisher, one of Noor’s attorneys, said the ruling was important for her client, according to NPR.
She said Noor “really believed that he was saving his partner’s life that night, and instead he tragically caused the loss of an innocent life. Of course that is incredibly challenging, but I think just having reaffirmation that a mistake like that isn’t murder will mean more than words can say.”
I’m pleased to learn the key to Derek Chauvin’s cell door, figuratively speaking, wasn’t thrown away once he was incarcerated.
I don’t believe his trial was properly conducted, but I also don’t foresee this being the end of the murder conviction of Derek Chauvin. I do predict, however, that eventually he will be exonerated. And those who disagree and those who would riot AGAIN as a result be damned.
Derek Chauvin, I believe, was politically convicted by a corrupt democrat political party for performing his job–subduing a violent career criminal who was drugged out of his mind and resisting arrest–thereby serving and protecting the public.
