Floyd murder convict seeks new trial

(File photo) Protestor hold a picture of George Floyd at a protest in Detroit, Michigan. (AFP)

Derek Chauvin, the white ex-policeman convicted of murdering African American man George Floyd, has asked for a new trial on claims of jury and prosecution misconduct. The 45-year-old – who knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes in Minneapolis – faces up to 40 years in prison after being found guilty last month in a case that prompted a national reckoning on racial injustice and police brutality. Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson argued that his client did not get a fair trial due to publicity around the case, court and prosecution errors, as well as “race-based pressure” on the jury. He also alleges that jurors should have been isolated during the trial and that the case could only get a fair hearing in a different place. “The publicity here was so pervasive and so prejudicial before and during this trial that it amounted to a structural defect in the proceedings,” Nelson wrote. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Floyd family, fiercely opposed the motion, writing on Twitter: “No. No. No. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.” The filing came as the impartiality of a juror in the case has been called into question after a photo surfaced of him at an anti-racism rally.