A federal judge granted Derek Chauvin’s defense attorneys permission to examine George Floyd’s heart tissue in an effort to substantiate their theory that Floyd died of an underlying heart condition, not from the pressure that Chauvin applied to his neck during the ill-fated arrest four years ago.
U.S. District judge Paul Magnuson issued the order on Monday, allowing the former Minneapolis police officer’s legal team to inspect heart tissue and fluid samples taken during Floyd’s autopsy. The motion represents Chauvin’s latest effort to overturn his 2022 federal conviction.
Floyd died in May 2020 in Minneapolis after Chauvin kneeled on and pinned his neck to the ground for over nine minutes. The incident was captured on video, sparking numerous violent protests across the U.S. over concerns of police brutality and racial injustice.
In 2021, Chauvin was convicted of second degree murder and other state charges in Minnesota and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison. He later received a federal sentence of 21 years for violating Floyd’s civil rights. The defendant pleaded guilty to the federal charge, which he appears to regret.
In a November 2023 motion to vacate the federal sentence, Chauvin said he wouldn’t have entered a guilty plea if he knew about the theories of Kansas pathologist Dr. William Schaetzel regarding Floyd’s cause of death. The doctor believes Floyd died from a high level of catecholamines — neurohormones that are triggered in stress responses — or takotsubo cardiomyopathy — a heart condition that develops in response to severe emotional or physical distress.
Chauvin blames his former lawyer for providing ineffective counsel by failing to inform him about Schaetzel’s theory and choosing not to test samples of Floyd’s heart. The judge found the argument compelling enough to grant the motion.
“Given the significant nature of the criminal case that Mr. Chauvin was convicted of, and given that the discovery that Mr. Chauvin seeks could support Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion of how Mr. Floyd died, the Court finds that there is good cause to allow Mr. Chauvin to take the discovery that he seeks,” Magnuson wrote.
Chauvin’s attorneys can now take discovery of slides and photos of Floyd’s heart, as well as tissue and fluid samples, in order to determine whether their client is entirely responsible for the black man’s death.
Floyd’s death was ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County medical examiner, who concluded it was caused by cardiopulmonary arrest in tandem with the pressure exerted by Chauvin’s knee. The autopsy report said Floyd had atherosclerosis heart disease, leading to an enlarged heart due to high blood pressure.
Chauvin is currently imprisoned in federal prison in Big Spring, Texas, where he was moved after suffering 22 stab wounds from another inmate in Arizona last November. The attack came days after the Supreme Court declined to consider Chauvin’s appeal of his murder conviction in state court.
Even if the former cop gets his federal sentence overturned, he still has to serve the remainder of his state sentence. Chauvin is not due for release until January 2038.