Judge denies motion to reinstate 3rd-degree murder charge for Chauvin, add charges for other 3 officers

The judge presiding over the trials of the four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd has denied a request to reinstate a third-degree murder charge for Derek Chauvin.

State prosecutors, led by Attorney General Keith Ellison, asked Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill to reinstate the lesser murder charge for Chauvin after the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the third-degree murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor in the death of Justine Damond.

The appeals court ruling established that "a conviction for third-degree murder … may be sustained even if the death-causing act was directed at a single person." State prosecutors argued that if this ruling established a precedent, it would be grounds to reinstate a third-degree murder charge against Chauvin.

However, Cahill wrote that "precedential" status is not final until the window for a petition for review closes or until the Minnesota Supreme Court denies a petition for review from Noor’s defense. That petition window would not close until March 3, and if the Supreme Court grants review, the Noor case would not gain precedential status.

Chauvin, the officer who was recorded on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes, was initially charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. A second-degree murder charge was added later, while the third-degree charge was dropped.

Chauvin’s trial is scheduled to start March 8.

Prosecutors also pushed for the addition of aiding and abetting third-degree murder charges for the other defendants in the case, former officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. In his court ruling Thursday, Cahill denied those charges as well.

Kueng, Lane and Thao each face charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.