Federal Appeals Court Upholds Conviction of Former Officer Derek Chauvin in George Floyd Murder Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has issued a landmark ruling, affirming the federal conviction of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer found guilty of violating the civil rights of George Floyd in May 2020. In a decision announced on Wednesday, a three-judge panel upheld Chauvin’s conviction on charges of willfully depriving Floyd of his rights under color of law, including the right to be free from unreasonable seizure and excessive force. The court simultaneously affirmed his concurrent 21-year federal sentence, rejecting the defense’s arguments that pretrial publicity and jury misconduct had tainted the proceedings. The ruling, delivered at 11:00 AM EDT, clarifies that the evidence of Chauvin’s use of a neck restraint for over nine minutes was sufficient to sustain the conviction, reinforcing legal precedents on police accountability.