Nationwide — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is making another attempt to overturn his state murder conviction in the death of George Floyd. His attorneys filed a new petition Tuesday asking the court to vacate the conviction and dismiss the charges.
The petition challenges Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s authority over the case. According to Valley News Live, Chauvin’s attorneys argue that assigning the case to Ellison was improper and violated their client’s due process rights.
His legal team also claims the Hennepin County District Court should have convened a grand jury before prosecutors made a charging decision. They argue that prosecutors’ failure to obtain an indictment also violated Chauvin’s constitutional rights.
Chauvin has been in federal prison since 2021, where he is serving concurrent sentences for Floyd’s death and a federal conviction for violating Floyd’s civil rights. He received a 22 1/2-year state sentence for second-degree murder and a 21-year federal sentence.
Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin held him to the ground with his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine and a half minutes. A bystander recorded the encounter, and Floyd’s death led to protests across the country and around the world.
This is the third postconviction petition Chauvin’s attorneys have filed. The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in 2022, while the Minnesota Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case. His first postconviction petition was dismissed in late 2025, followed by a second dismissal in May.