New Evidence Shows I Didn't Kill George Floyd: Derek Chauvin

MINNEAPOLIS — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin is trying once again to get his federal civil rights conviction in the 2020 murder of George Floyd thrown out.

Chauvin's motion filed in federal court Monday claims that new evidence shows he didn't cause Floyd's death and that he never would have pleaded guilty if he had known then about the theories of a Kansas pathologist.

Dr. William Schaetzel, of Topeka, Kansas, believes Floyd died not from asphyxia from Chauvin’s actions, but from complications of a rare tumor called a paraganglioma that can cause a fatal surge of adrenaline.

Schaetzel did not examine Floyd’s body but reviewed autopsy reports.

"I can’t go to my grave with what I know," Schaetzel told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday. "I just want the truth."

Chauvin also claims in Monday's filing that Schaetzel reached out to his former attorney, Eric Nelson, in 2021, but that Nelson never told him about the pathologist or his ideas.

Chauvin is currently serving a 21-year sentence at a federal prison in Arizona. The federal sentence runs concurrently with his state sentence for a similar number of years.

A federal appeals court has already rejected Chauvin's requests for a rehearing twice. He is still waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it will hear his appeal of his murder conviction in Minnesota state court.

Meanwhile, three other former Minneapolis officers are serving much smaller sentences for their roles in Floyd's death.

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.