‘That Will Prove Nothing!!!’: Federal Judge Allows Testing of George Floyd’s Heart Tissue as Derek Chauvin Seeks to Once Again Challenge His Conviction By Claiming Floyd Died of Cardiac Problem

A federal judge granted lawyers for Derek Chauvin permission to have tissue samples from George Floyd‘s heart and other body fluids tested in order to pursue an expert witness theory that Floyd died of a heart condition, not asphyxiation from Chauvin kneeling on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for nine and a half minutes. In his bid for a new trial, the former Minneapolis police officer argues that Eric Nelson, the attorney who represented him in his federal trial for violating Floyd’s civil rights, provided ineffective assistance of counsel by ignoring communications prior to his December 2021 guilty plea from Dr. William Schaetzel, a forensic pathologist. Derek Chauvin was granted another opportunity to contest his conviction after ruling by federal judge. (Credit: Getty Images) Schaetzel had independently reviewed Floyd’s autopsy report and was convinced that Floyd had died from complications from a paraganglioma tumor that had secreted excessive levels of adrenaline, causing a fatal heart attack. In his motion filed on Dec. 13, Chauvin, who is serving a 20.5-year sentence on the federal charges, sought permission to examine evidence including heart tissue and fluid samples that he argues could validate the alternate theory on Floyd’s primary cause of death. In...