Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is asking a Minnesota court to throw out his state conviction in the death of George Floyd.
His attorney argues that the prosecution was never lawfully placed before the court because no grand jury reviewed the charges.
Attorney Greg Joseph presented [1] that argument in a 31 page petition filed Tuesday.
The motion accuses state and Hennepin County officials of fraudulent and unlawful conduct while claiming that fundamental protections owed to Chauvin were ignored.
Joseph contends that Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill oversaw a yearlong due process violation by allowing the case to proceed without convening a grand jury.
According to the petition, that failure deprived the court of jurisdiction from the beginning.
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The attorney wrote that no grand jury considered the state evidence between the time Cahill received the case and the eventual verdict.
Joseph declared, “He lacked jurisdiction over the charges, as this Court does, because they were never lawfully brought.”
The petition challenges the foundation of one of the most politically explosive prosecutions in modern American history.
It argues that officials raced ahead under enormous public pressure while bypassing legal procedures that should have been addressed before a trial ever began.
Joseph also disputes Governor Tim Walz’s decision to appoint Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to lead the prosecution.
The filing argues that the appointment was unlawful and that Ellison lacked proper authority to expand the complaint against Chauvin.
Ellison added a second degree murder charge after taking control of the case.
Chauvin was eventually convicted and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison on the state charges, while also receiving a concurrent 21 year federal sentence for civil rights violations.
The filing further points to the departure of Hennepin County prosecutor Amy Seasy from the prosecution team.
According to the petition, Seasy “disagreed with a decision to add additional charges against Chauvin.”
Joseph claims the initial county charges were viewed as insufficient amid the political fury surrounding Floyd’s death.
The petition alleges that Walz then moved the case to Ellison, who electronically filed another complaint containing the murder charge demanded by activists and political leaders.
That accusation goes directly to the atmosphere surrounding the prosecution, when street unrest and political pressure dominated public discussion.
The filing portrays the case as a rush to satisfy an angry mob rather than a careful effort to follow established constitutional safeguards.
Joseph did not merely argue that isolated mistakes occurred during trial.
He wrote, “It is impossible to assess the trial errors in State v. Chauvin because the entire trial was a fraud; it was based on unfounded charges that were never properly before the Court.”
The motion therefore seeks more than a review of disputed evidence or jury instructions.
It asks the state court to recognize that, in Joseph’s view, the entire prosecution was jurisdictionally defective and that the resulting conviction cannot legally stand.
Speaking with Alpha News, Joseph explained why these arguments had not surfaced during earlier proceedings.
He said, “In a very short period of time there were very fundamental and basic violations of due process.”
Joseph continued, “And those aren’t necessarily things that defense attorneys normally look for.”
His explanation suggests the alleged defects were so basic that prior lawyers may have assumed the government and court had properly handled them.
The petition arrives years after the Chauvin trial became a national political spectacle, with activists, elected officials, and establishment media figures treating the desired verdict as virtually mandatory.
Now the court must decide whether the missing grand jury issue has legal merit or whether the conviction will remain untouched.
Joseph believes the consequences stretch well beyond his client’s imprisonment.
As he put it, “The political fruits of this unlawful prosecution have shaped the trajectory of this State and the world.”
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The court has not yet ruled on the request, and the petition’s accusations remain arguments from Chauvin’s attorney.
Still, the filing forces Minnesota officials to answer an uncomfortable question about whether political urgency replaced lawful procedure in a case that helped reshape the country.