A recent motion filed by Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, allows his defense team to test samples from Floyd’s autopsy, including heart tissue and blood, in an effort to prove Chauvin was not responsible for Floyd’s death.
Chauvin was sentenced in 2022 for murdering Floyd during an attempted arrest on Memorial Day 2020, where Chauvin’s knee was placed on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes, leading to Floyd’s death. The incident sparked widespread protests and riots. Chauvin is currently serving over 20 years in prison, but he is seeking to overturn his federal conviction, citing ineffective legal counsel.
Chauvin’s motion argues that his original defense attorney, Eric Nelson, failed to inform him of a pathologist’s opinion suggesting that Floyd’s death could have been caused by a heart condition called Takotsubo’s myocarditis, rather than asphyxiation from the knee restraint.
According to Dr. William Schaetzel, excessive catecholamines might have triggered a heart attack, leading to pulmonary edema and death.
Chauvin’s defense now seeks to examine Floyd’s autopsy samples, including vitreous fluid, femoral blood, antemortem blood, and urine, to test for signs of Takotsubo’s myocarditis.
The court has granted Chauvin’s request, allowing his defense team to inspect Floyd’s heart tissue and review photographs of the heart taken during the autopsy, as well as analyze certain fluid samples.
