Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is again asking a Minnesota court to throw out his murder conviction in the death of George Floyd, this time arguing that the entire prosecution was “illegal” and a “fraud” from the start.
Chauvin and his attorney, Greg Joseph, filed a new petition alleging civil rights violations so severe that the trial amounted to a “one-year-long due process violation,” according to reporting from Liz Collin of Minneapolis’s Alpha News, which first obtained the filing.
Grand Jury Absence at Core of Challenge
The central argument in the latest filing is that no grand jury was ever convened to review the evidence against Chauvin before charges were filed. Joseph contends that Hennepin County lacked jurisdiction over the charges because they were never lawfully brought.
According to the filing, the county’s initial charges were deemed insufficient for the political moment, so Governor Tim Walz “referred the case to Keith Ellison,” the state attorney general, who then “signed and e-filed a second unfounded complaint” that added the murder charge. The lack of a grand jury, the filing argues, “allowed prosecutors to substitute their judgment for that of the grand jury in order to force Mr. Chauvin to face charges that were unsupported by probable cause.”
MPR News separately reported that the petition claims Walz’s assignment of Ellison to prosecute the case was “illegitimate.”
Third Attempt to Overturn Conviction
This marks the third time Chauvin has tried to have the charges dismissed or the verdict overturned. His previous attempts failed, but his legal team argues that the unusual procedural path taken by state and local prosecutors in the volatile aftermath of the 2020 Minneapolis riots left the conviction vulnerable.
Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill, who presided over the trial, is named in the filing as having presided over the alleged due process violation by failing to convene a grand jury at any point between his assignment to the case and the verdict.
Chauvin was convicted of murder in Floyd’s death. Prosecutors alleged he used a knee hold to keep Floyd on the ground while awaiting backup and an ambulance. Chauvin’s defenders and his current legal team have pointed to Floyd’s fentanyl use and the circumstances of the arrest, noting that the drug dealer present that day could have been an exonerating witness but was allowed not to testify.
Broader Allegations of Political Pressure
The new filing alleges “fraudulent” conduct by Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, according to Alpha News. The filing claims “structural issues” were present in the zeal to secure a conviction in the wake of the riots that followed Floyd’s death.
Chauvin’s attorney told Collin that the trial was “a one-yearlong due process violation” against his client.
Since the conviction, Chauvin has also faced personal turmoil. He was stabbed 22 times in a prison law library by an inmate, an attack his team has linked to his notoriety. His wife divorced him after the conviction.
The new petition is the latest legal maneuver in a case that remains deeply polarizing, with Chauvin’s supporters and some conservative commentators arguing that politics and optics drove the prosecution rather than the evidence.
Source: pjmedia.com — https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2026/08/19/maybe-this-move-convinces-americans-that-trial-of-george-floyd-murderer-was-complete-garbage-n4956316
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