Derek Chauvin was convicted in state court in the murder of George Floyd. For reasons I explained in great detail at the time, Chauvin did not get a fair trial. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. His appeals from that verdict failed in the state courts and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Chauvin also pled guilty to federal charges and received a roughly similar sentence. Chauvin is contesting his federal guilty plea, asserting in a pro se motion to vacate sentence, among other things, ineffective assistance from his counsel Eric Nelson, for failure to engage with a supposed expert who reached out with a theory that Floyd died because of heart failure not Chauvin’s actions.
Counsel appointed for Chauvin after Nelson withdrew from the case then filed a Motion for Discovery:
The opinion of Dr. Schaetzel is that Mr. Floyd died due to a catecholamine crisis when his paraganglioma secreted excessive levels of catecholamines. Dr. Schaetzel urges that samples preserved from Mr. Floyd be tested for catecholamines and their metabolites, and that tissue sections of Mr. Floyd’s heart be examined. These tests and examinations would support Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion about what caused Mr. Floyd to die if high levels of catecholamines or their metabolites were discovered, or if the heart tissue showed evidence of Takotsubo’s myocarditis. (Takotsubo’s myocarditis is an acute heart failure (i.e., a heart attack), that is caused by a catecholamine crisis.) So Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion is that the catecholamine crisis led to Takotsubo’s myocarditis, resulting in pulmonary edema and death. Because these tests and examinations would support Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion depending on their results, there is good cause to conduct the tests.
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In sum, Chauvin requests the following discovery:
• Any and all histology slides of Floyd’s heart, tissue samples of Floyd’s heart, tissue blocks containing heart tissue from Floyd, recut sections of all autopsy tissue histology slides relating to Floyd’s heart, related to the criminal case against Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd possessed by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office (HCMEO), and any entity that the HCMEO contracted with that has these materials.
• Photos taken of George Floyd’s heart.
• Any and all vitreous fluid/aqueous humor, postmortem blood, antemortem blood, and urine from Floyd possessed by the HCMEO, any entity that the HCMEO contracted with that has these materials, HHC (autopsy report notes that antemortem blood was taken at HHC), and NMS Labs (NMS Labs conducted the toxicology testing and produced the toxicology report, and thus they may still have samples of the blood and urine that they tested (DE 544-1 at 25-26)). Chauvin requests quantities of these fluids sufficient to test the concentration of fractionated catecholamines and metanephrine levels present.
The Court granted the motion for discovery in an Order on December 16, 2024:
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson (Credit: Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Mr. Chauvin filed a § 2255 motion challenging his federal conviction. In the briefing on this motion, he argued that his motion should be granted because he was denied the effective assistance of counsel in two fundamental ways. First, his attorney, Eric Nelson, failed to inform Mr. Chauvin that a Doctor William Schaetzel had contacted Mr. Nelson and opined that Mr. Chauvin did not cause Mr. Floyd’s death. Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion is that Mr. Floyd died due to a catecholamine crisis when his paraganglioma secreted excessive levels of catecholamines. These excessive levels of catecholamines led to Takotsubo’s myocarditis (a type of acute heart failure, or heart attack), resulting in pulmonary edema and death. Dr. Schaetzel contacted Mr. Nelson in April 2021, before Mr. Chauvin was indicted federally. So Mr. Chauvin’s first ground is a claim that Nelson provided ineffective assistance of counsel to Mr. Chauvin by failing to consult with him on this issue.
The second way Mr. Chauvin claims that Mr. Nelson was ineffective is related, though independent. Dr. Schaetzel urged that samples preserved from Mr. Floyd be tested for catecholamines and their metabolites, and that tissue sections of Mr. Floyd’s heart be examined. These tests and examinations would support Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion about what caused Mr. Floyd to die if high levels of catecholamines or their metabolites were discovered, or if the heart tissue showed evidence of Takotsubo’s myocarditis. Mr. Nelson never requested these tests. Mr. Chauvin’s second claim is thus not a failure-to-consult claim, but a failure-to-test claim.
Mr. Chauvin’s discovery motion seeks to have the tests performed that could support Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion of how Mr. Floyd died… (Read more: Legal Insurrection, 12/17/2024) (Archive)