Judge approves new lawyer for Bryan Kohberger in Idaho murder trial
A judge has granted Bryan Kohberger’s request for new legal counsel as he seeks a new trial, even after previously pleading guilty to the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students. Legal analyst Mehek Cooke noted that undoing a guilty plea is an exceptionally difficult legal challenge, while relatives of the victims said the renewed court fight is forcing them to endure the trauma all over again.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted in the killing of George Floyd, has filed another petition seeking to overturn his state murder conviction.
Chauvin’s attorneys submitted a motion Tuesday asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to put his current appeal on hold.
The request would effectively pause the appellate proceedings and allow Chauvin to return the case to the local trial court, where he hopes to raise a new argument claiming the original charges against him were improperly filed.
An attorney for former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is expected to challenge his conviction in George Floyd’s 2020 murder. (Court TV via AP)
Chauvin was found guilty in April 2021 in connection with Floyd’s 2020 death. According to court records, the former officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd lay handcuffed and face down on the pavement. Floyd died after suffering a fatal lack of oxygen to the brain.
George Floyd is shown beneath former Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin, near former officer J. Alexander Kueng, in a still image from former officer Thomas Lane’s body camera footage during the police encounter that led to Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. (MPD/Hennepin County District Court/Handout via REUTERS)
In June, Chauvin’s legal team appealed a judge’s ruling that rejected his petition for post-conviction relief.
The judge denied Chauvin’s entire post-conviction petition on May 1, more than five months after it was initially filed in November 2025. This is Chauvin’s third petition for conviction relief.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is handcuffed to be led away after a jury found him guilty of all charges in his trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 20, 2021, in a still image from video. (Pool via REUTERS)
“Mr. Chauvin became aware of additional violations of Mr. Chauvin’s due process rights in the unlawful assignment of authority by Governor Tim Walz to Attorney General Keith Ellison to prosecute State v. Chauvin,” the motion said.
The Tuesday motion asks the court to pause Chauvin’s pending appeal so the trial court can evaluate new procedural claims—including improper prosecutor assignment, failure to convene a grand jury, lack of court jurisdiction, and judicial bias—which his defense argues amount to non-waivable “structural errors.”
In this photo provided by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin poses for a booking photo after his conviction on April 21, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges in the murder of George Floyd. (Photo by Minnesota Department of Corrections via Getty Images)
News Outlet has reached out to the Minnesota Attorney General for comment.
