Attorneys for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin have launched another attempt to overturn his state murder conviction, this time challenging the authority behind the prosecution itself.
Chauvin’s legal team filed a petition Tuesday with the Minnesota Court of Appeals seeking dismissal of the state murder charges. The attorneys argue that Gov. Tim Walz acted unlawfully when he assigned Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to prosecute the case, and that the alleged defect violated Chauvin’s due process rights.
The filing represents Chauvin’s latest challenge to his conviction in the May 2020 death of George Floyd. The Minnesota Court of Appeals has denied two previous petitions from Chauvin.
In April 2021, a jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Video of Floyd’s arrest showed Chauvin restraining Floyd with his knee for more than nine minutes.
BREAKING: Derek Chauvin’s attorney seeks dismissal in a new bombshell court filing alleging ‘illegal’ and ‘fraudulent’ conduct by Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
Chauvin’s attorney, Greg Joseph, argues a grand jury… pic.twitter.com/baF5VdeDKu
— Liz Collin (@lizcollin) August 18, 2026
Floyd’s autopsy also documented fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system. During the encounter, Floyd resisted officers’ efforts to place him inside a police vehicle and repeatedly said he could not breathe, including before he was restrained on the ground.
Chauvin, now 50, is serving a state prison sentence of more than 22 years. He also received a 21-year federal sentence after pleading guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights.
The new petition focuses heavily on how the state case was prosecuted.
“Because Hennepin County’s unlawful charges against Mr. Chauvin were not severe enough for the mob, Walz referred the case to Keith Ellison, who signed and e-filed a second unfounded complaint against Derek Chauvin that included the murder charge,” attorney Greg Joseph wrote in the petition, according to Alpha News.
Chauvin’s attorneys contend Walz’s assignment of the case to Ellison was “illegitimate.” They argue that the alleged problem deprived Chauvin of due process and undermined the validity of the charges that ultimately led to his imprisonment.
The defense is also attacking the prosecution’s failure to use a grand jury.
Derek Chauvin was unjustly convicted of murder, therefore he should be freed.
The facts show that he was not the cause of death, nor did he at any time intend for a death to occur. Whatever else he may be, he is not a murderer.
That is the truth.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2026
According to the filing, a grand jury should have been convened to determine whether probable cause existed for the charges. Chauvin’s lawyers argue that bypassing that process allowed prosecutors themselves to make a decision that should have been placed before a grand jury.
The lack of a grand jury “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,” the petition said, according to MPR News.
Chauvin’s attorneys take that argument a step further, contending that the alleged violations deprived both the trial court and appellate court of jurisdiction over the charges.
“As a result of these several due process violations, including the failure to present the matter to a grand jury for a probable cause determination or even to convene one, both this Court and the District Court lack jurisdiction over the charges in the Amended Complaint on which he is currently incarcerated, and it must be dismissed immediately,” the legal team wrote, according to The Hill.
The petition does not merely ask the appeals court to reconsider disputed evidence from the trial. It attacks the legal process used to bring the murder charges in the first place, arguing that those alleged procedural failures require dismissal.
George Floyd would still be alive if he had only complied with police direction. Body cam footage clearly showed defiance by Floyd, and even when he was finally wrangled into the police car he escaped on the other side. Had he sat in the car, he would still be alive. TRUTH. pic.twitter.com/wB3fd4B1ZV
— Booker (@RealBookerScott) May 25, 2024
The filing has also drawn attention from Elon Musk.
“Derek Chauvin was unjustly convicted of murder, therefore he should be freed,” Musk wrote Wednesday on X. “The facts show that he was not the cause of death, nor did he at any time intend for a death to occur.”
“Whatever else he may be, he is not a murderer. That is the truth,” Musk added.
Musk’s assertions go beyond the procedural arguments at the center of Chauvin’s latest petition. The official medical examiner ruled Floyd’s death a homicide, while the defense at Chauvin’s trial disputed the cause of death and emphasized Floyd’s drug use and underlying medical issues.
Video evidence presented during the trial also showed Floyd becoming highly distressed as officers attempted to put him into the squad car. He repeatedly resisted entering the vehicle and said he could not breathe before officers placed him on the ground.
Those circumstances were extensively argued at Chauvin’s trial. His latest legal effort, however, turns primarily on a different question: whether Minnesota officials followed lawful procedures when Ellison’s office took over the prosecution and pursued the murder charges.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals must now decide whether those arguments provide a legal basis to revisit a conviction that Chauvin has already unsuccessfully challenged multiple times.
