Derek Chauvin’s legal team will be allowed to appeal his federal sentence with access to the autopsy data for George Floyd.
The 2020 death of Floyd sparked Black Lives Matter riots around the U.S. after video went viral of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd for more than 9 minutes following his arrest. But key parts of the autopsy were not admitted in Chauvin’s defense and his drug dealer had been allowed to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights.
On Monday, Minnesota Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that the defense will be allowed access to samples or slides of Floyd’s heart tissue, as well as his bodily fluids. It seems Chauvin’s defense plans to argue that the death could have been caused by fentanyl and methamphetamine, among other drugs, found in Floyd’s blood, in addition to “a high level of catecholamines, a neurohormone important in stress response; or Takotsubo’s myocarditis, an acute stress-induced heart condition.”
