Derek Chauvin Asks State to Overturn Conviction in George Floyd Case
A newly filed court petition is reigniting questions about the prosecution that sent former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to prison.
Attorney Greg Joseph submitted the 31-page filing on Tuesday, asking a court to dismiss the charges tied to the 2020 death of George Floyd.
At the heart of the petition is a procedural claim rarely seen this late in a case: that Chauvin was never legally indicted in the first place.
Joseph contends no grand jury ever reviewed the evidence brought against Chauvin, a step he says was constitutionally required before the case could proceed.
According to the filing, Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill “presided over a year-long due process violation by failing to convene a grand jury to consider the State’s evidence at any point between the moment he was assigned to the case, and the verdict.”
The petition goes further, asserting Cahill “lacked jurisdiction over the charges, as this Court does, because they were never lawfully brought,” Alpha News reported.
Joseph’s filing doesn’t stop at the judge. It also takes aim at how the case landed in the hands of Minnesota’s top prosecutor.
Governor Tim Walz appointed Attorney General Keith Ellison to oversee the prosecution, a decision the petition characterizes as unlawful.
Ellison’s involvement proved pivotal. He added a second-degree murder charge to the complaint against Chauvin, a charge that would ultimately help define the case’s outcome.
Chauvin was convicted and handed two concurrent sentences: 22.5 years on the state second-degree murder charge, and 21 years for federal civil rights violations.
The petition highlights internal dissent within the prosecution itself.
Hennepin County prosecutor Amy Seasy withdrew from the case, and the filing states she “disagreed with a decision to add additional charges against Chauvin.”
Joseph’s filing frames Ellison’s entry into the case in stark terms.
It reads, “Because Hennepin County’s unlawful charges against Mr. Chauvin were not severe enough for the mob, Walz referred the case to Keith Ellison, who signed and e-filed a second unfounded complaint against Derek Chauvin that included the murder charge it wanted.”
The petition doesn’t just challenge individual decisions — it questions the legitimacy of the trial as a whole.
Joseph 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.”
Asked by Alpha News why these claims are only now coming to light, Joseph pointed to the narrow, technical nature of the alleged violations.
He said, “In a very short period of time there were very fundamental and basic violations of due process. And those aren’t necessarily things that defense attorneys normally look for.”
Joseph also weighed in on what he views as the case’s lasting impact. “The political fruits of this unlawful prosecution have shaped the trajectory of this State and the world,” he said.
Chauvin’s time behind bars has not been without violence.
In 2023, while incarcerated at a federal facility in Arizona, he survived a brutal attack, stabbed nearly two dozen times inside the prison’s law library.
Reports indicate Chauvin had been transferred to that facility specifically for his own protection.
Despite that, fellow inmate John Turscak, 52, allegedly carried out the assault and was charged with attempted murder.
This latest petition adds to a long list of legal challenges from Chauvin’s defense team. The U.S. Supreme Court already turned away one appeal in 2023.
Hennepin County judges have twice more rejected Chauvin’s appeals since then, first in 2024 and again in 2025.
Unlike previous efforts, this filing doesn’t focus on trial conduct or sentencing.
Instead, it strikes at the procedural foundation of the case itself, arguing the prosecution never had proper legal standing to begin with.
No court ruling on the petition has been issued as of this writing.
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