Legal analyses, court rulings, and policy changes following the appeal

Judge Paul Magnuson Allows Chauvin's Team to Examine Floyd's Heart Tissue in Appeal Effort

Dec 17, 2024, 05:21 PM

A federal judge, Paul Magnuson, has granted Derek Chauvin's legal team permission to examine preserved heart tissue and fluid samples from George Floyd's autopsy. The decision is part of Chauvin's appeal of his federal civil rights conviction, where his defense argues that Floyd may have died from an underlying heart condition or a rare tumor rather than asphyxiation caused by Chauvin's actions. The ruling follows claims that Chauvin's original attorney, Eric Nelson, failed to pursue evidence from a Kansas pathologist, Dr. William Schaetzel, who suggested Floyd's death might have been due to takotsubo cardiomyopathy or excessive catecholamines. Nelson's decision not to act on this theory has been described as a tactical choice by federal prosecutors. Chauvin, convicted in state court for murder and later pleading guilty to federal civil rights charges, is serving concurrent sentences of 21 and 22.5 years. The legal team now has access to histology slides, heart tissue samples, and fluid samples to test these theories. Floyd's death in 2020, captured on video showing Chauvin kneeling on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, sparked nationwide protests and a reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice.