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The Prosecution Erin Eldridge, an assistant attorney general, works in the office's criminal division. Like Mr. Frank, she was involved in the prosecution of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted in April of murdering George Floyd.
The Chauvin trial was one of the biggest in Minnesota history, but as Attorney Joe Tamburino explains, what can appear to be an open-and-shut case can be successfully appealed especially given some of the evolving legal precedent around Chauvin's 3rd degree murder charge.
Kellie Chauvin is a Hmong American realtor who is the former wife of the American ex-officer Derek Chauvin, charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.
Derek Chauvin deemed ineligible for public defender for appeals to Floyd murder conviction. The justices made that decision after reviewing information about Chauvin's debts and assets.
The prosecution had an “all-star” team of lawyers, Aden said, led by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who did not speak in court. Ellison, a civil rights attorney prior to becoming attorney general, assembled a group of local prosecutors and outside attorneys to work on the case.
Bringing criminal charges and securing convictions against officers is notoriously difficult. From 2005 through June 2019, 20 out of 104 police officers charged with murder or manslaughter for on-duty shootings in the U.S. were convicted through a jury trial, according to a study from Bowling Green State University.
Steven Schleicher is an experienced appellate attorney and trial lawyer before being called to public service in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin. Schleicher delivered the much of state’s evidence and arguments ultimately paying off with three guilty verdicts for the murder of George Floyd on Memorial Day in 2020.
As a founder of the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers, Blackwell was able to vindicate Max Mason with the posthumous pardon in June of 2020. Blackwell effectively cleared Max Mason’s name after he was wrongly convicted of rape in 1920 in connection with the Duluth lynchings.
Keith Ellison is Minnesota’s Attorney General and a member of the DFL and appointed special prosecutor by Tim Walz that helped convict Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd on 4/20/2021.